{"id":20571,"date":"2011-12-27T10:40:47","date_gmt":"2011-12-27T15:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=20571"},"modified":"2011-12-27T10:40:47","modified_gmt":"2011-12-27T15:40:47","slug":"nba-predictions-boston-celtics-vs-miami-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nba-predictions-boston-celtics-vs-miami-heat-20571\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Predictions: Boston Celtics vs. Miami Heat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boston Celtics at Miami Heat
\nTuesday, 12\/27\/11, 8:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 TNT
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Miami -10
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Miami -10.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 N\/A
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 N\/A
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Wade will matchup with Manu Ginobili tonight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Boston was unable to hold onto a second-half lead in dropping a 106-104 decision to the New York Knicks as five-point road underdogs on Christmas Day.\u00a0 The Celtics played that particular contest without the services of star forward Paul Pierce, who is listed as questionable with a heel injury.\u00a0 Celtics head coach Doc Rivers said that Pierce would come off the bench due to being limited in practice.\u00a0 Boston is 15-13 ATS after allowing 105 or more points the last two-plus seasons.<\/p>\n

The Celtics will need to get a major performance out of point guard Rajon Rondo on opening day, scoring 31 points and dishing out 13 assists.\u00a0 Boston should anticipate that Miami will match up star LeBron James on the former Kentucky Wildcats guard.\u00a0 Rondo averaged 10.0 points and 7.6 assists in the team\u2019s playoff series loss to the Heat, playing the final two-plus games with a dislocated left elbow.\u00a0 Boston won the regular-season series, 3-1, and guard Ray Allen led the squad in averaging 20.3 points per game on 57.1 percent shooting from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n

Miami tallied an impressive 105-94 win over the Dallas Mavericks to open the season as 4.5-point road favorites, gaining revenge from an NBA finals loss in six games.\u00a0 \u201cWe tried to play aggressive,\u201d commented James after the game.\u00a0 He finished with 37 points, 10 rebounds and six assists.\u00a0 Star guard Dwyane Wade got his 2011-12 campaign off to a great start, putting up 26 points and eight rebounds.\u00a0 Miami is 20-10 ATS in December the last two-plus years.<\/p>\n

The Heat and Celtics meet for the first of four match-ups this season.\u00a0 Miami is 36-55 all-time versus Boston during the regular season, including a 21-26 mark when playing games in South Beach.\u00a0 James set several opening night team records, including his 37 points and 15 free-throw makes.\u00a0 Miami opens up its home schedule tonight and is 13-10 in home openers, winning the last three.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Heat due to their 6-2 ATS mark in home games, while the Celtics are 3-7 ATS on the road.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the NBA handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boston Celtics at Miami Heat Tuesday, 12\/27\/11, 8:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 TNT Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Miami -10 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Miami -10.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 N\/A Current Total:\u00a0 N\/A Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Boston was unable to hold onto a second-half lead in dropping a 106-104 decision to the New York Knicks as five-point road underdogs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":9351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20571","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\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20571"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20572,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20571\/revisions\/20572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}