{"id":15305,"date":"2011-05-06T23:54:16","date_gmt":"2011-05-07T04:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=15305"},"modified":"2011-05-07T00:46:32","modified_gmt":"2011-05-07T05:46:32","slug":"game-3-nba-playoff-picks-celtics-look-for-first-win-against-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/game-3-nba-playoff-picks-celtics-look-for-first-win-against-heat-15305\/","title":{"rendered":"Game 3 NBA Playoff Picks: Celtics look for first win against Heat"},"content":{"rendered":"

2011 NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs<\/strong>
\nSecond Round – Game 3<\/strong>
\nMiami Heat at Boston Celtics, TD Garden<\/strong>
\nSaturday, May 7, 2011, 8:00 pm Eastern, TV: ABC<\/strong>
\nOpening Line: Celtics -3.5<\/strong>
\nCurrent Line: Celtics -3<\/strong>
\nOpening Total: 183<\/strong>
\nCurrent Total: 183<\/strong>
\nMoney Line: Celtics -160 \/ Heat +140<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Celtics
The Celtics face a virtual must-win situation against the Heat in Game 3 as 3-point favorites.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Boston Celtics (60-28) had the Miami Heat\u2019s number the first three times they met during the regular season.\u00a0 But things have certainly changed since then as the Celtics (-3) look to avoid a fourth straight loss to the Heat (64-25) along with an 0-3 hole in their second-round Eastern Conference playoff series when Game 3 tips off on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The defending Eastern Conference champions are suddenly aging quickly, much like their counterparts in the West.\u00a0 It seems like a very long time ago since Boston took the two-time defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers to a seventh and deciding game last June.\u00a0 Both teams have dug themselves into early holes that will be difficult to escape against opponents that can take advantage of their weaknesses, but at least the Celtics have yet to play a home game.<\/p>\n

Boston is hoping to get a boost from the fans at TD Garden following a four-day layoff since losing Game 2 on Tuesday at Miami, 102-91.\u00a0 The Heat used a strong fourth quarter to top the Celtics for the second game in a row as 5-point favorites, outscoring them 30-24 behind 12 of LeBron James\u2019 game-high 35 points.<\/p>\n

James also had seven rebounds and two assists, his lowest total since March 25.\u00a0 That did not matter though, as Mike Bibby and Dwyane Wade each dished out three assists while Chris Bosh had a team-high four.\u00a0 The trio of James, Wade and Bosh combined to make 23 of 32 free throws, scoring six more points from the charity stripe than the entire Boston team.<\/p>\n

The Celtics will need to be more aggressive in Game 3 if they want to turn the tables on Miami and make this into a competitive series.\u00a0 The Heat have attempted 28 more free throws and made 22 more through the first two games, and Boston power forward Kevin Garnett has yet to earn a trip there.<\/p>\n

Garnett has been limited to a total of 14 rebounds so far after grabbing 10 or more in every game against New York in the first round.\u00a0 The anticipated return of center Shaquille O\u2019Neal from a calf injury that has limited him to just 5:29 of game action since February 1 might be just what he needs to finally get the best of Bosh inside.<\/p>\n

Miami has won 13 of its last 15 games dating back to the regular season, going 10-5 against the spread.\u00a0 The OVER is 4-1 in the Heat\u2019s last five games, including the first two games of this series.\u00a0 The Celtics are 3-6 ATS in their past nine overall despite going 5-4 straight-up but 14-8-1 vs. the line this season when playing with two days of rest or more.<\/p>\n

Now that you have read this NBA betting preview featuring the Celtics & Heat, make sure to check out the NBA odds on this and all the games to compare the best lines at multiple sportsbooks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2011 NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs Second Round – Game 3 Miami Heat at Boston Celtics, TD Garden Saturday, May 7, 2011, 8:00 pm Eastern, TV: ABC Opening Line: Celtics -3.5 Current Line: Celtics -3 Opening Total: 183 Current Total: 183 Money Line: Celtics -160 \/ Heat +140 The Boston Celtics (60-28) had the Miami Heat\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":4388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[3115,120,4906,4914,3622,4438,1553,707,4439,1985,4857,4858,4440,242,4682,4683],"class_list":["post-15305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-abc","tag-boston-celtics","tag-celtics-heat-playoff-preview","tag-conference-semifinals","tag-eastern-conference","tag-free-pro-basketball-pick","tag-game-3","tag-miami-heat","tag-nba-basketball-odds","tag-nba-picks","tag-nba-playoff-betting","tag-nba-playoff-picks","tag-pro-basketball-betting","tag-second-round","tag-second-round-betting","tag-second-round-picks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15305"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15307,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15305\/revisions\/15307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}