{"id":21592,"date":"2012-02-09T11:44:15","date_gmt":"2012-02-09T16:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=21592"},"modified":"2012-02-09T11:44:15","modified_gmt":"2012-02-09T16:44:15","slug":"nba-betting-preview-los-angeles-lakers-vs-boston-celtics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nba-betting-preview-los-angeles-lakers-vs-boston-celtics-21592\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Betting Preview: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Boston Celtics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Lakers at Boston Celtics
\nThursday, 2\/9\/12, 8:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 TNT
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Boston -3
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Boston -3.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 176.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 175
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Celtics<\/a>
Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo is the key player to watch Thursday night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Los Angeles continues its six-game road trip Thursday night in visiting the Boston Celtics inside the TD Garden.\u00a0 The Lakers are coming off a disappointing 95-90 defeat to the Philadelphia 76ers as 4.5-point road underdogs.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t think we need to change much,\u201d commented Lakers forward Metta World Peace.\u00a0 \u201cWe have the guys to finish the games.\u201d\u00a0 The franchise has won three straight and five of six in Boston during regular-season meetings.\u00a0 Los Angeles is 3-7 ATS as an underdog this year and the \u201cunder\u201d is 6-4 in that situation.<\/p>\n

The Lakers are 3-9 overall away from the Staples Center, including an 0-4 mark versus Eastern Conference opponents.\u00a0 Los Angeles is still being led offensively by star guard Kobe Bryant, who leads the league in averaging 29.3 points per game, as he scored a game-high 28 points in the latest loss against the 76ers.\u00a0 Center Andrew Bynum continues to show that he\u2019s worthy of his recent All-Star selection, averaging 20.8 points and 13.3 rebounds over the past four games.<\/p>\n

Boston is playing its best basketball of the season in winning five games in a row, while going \u201cover\u201d the total in the last two contests.\u00a0 The Celtics are coming off a 94-84 win over the Charlotte Bobcats as 14-point home favorites, as the squad has alternated covering the spread over the five-game streak.\u00a0 Forward Paul Pierce moved into the No. 2 spot all-time in terms of scoring in franchise history, while averaging 22.6 points and 7.4 assists over his last 10 games.\u00a0 Boston is 7-9 ATS at home this year and the \u201cunder\u201d is 12-4 in those contests.<\/p>\n

The Celtics have four starters averaging in double figures, coming in with a 10-6 home record, which includes a 1-3 mark versus Western Conference opponents.\u00a0 Boston will need to crash the boards in order to pick up a win tonight, ranking among one of the worst rebounding teams in the league, facing a Lakers\u2019 squad that grabs 44.8 board a contest.\u00a0 Point guard Rajon Rondo is the biggest mismatch to watch against an aging Derek Fisher, averaging 13.6 points and 9.8 assists per game.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Celtics due to their 4-1-1 ATS mark as a home favorite, while the Lakers are 1-6 ATS versus winning home teams.<\/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":"

Los Angeles Lakers at Boston Celtics Thursday, 2\/9\/12, 8:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 TNT Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Boston -3 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Boston -3.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 176.5 Current Total:\u00a0 175 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Los Angeles continues its six-game road trip Thursday night in visiting the Boston Celtics inside the TD Garden.\u00a0 The Lakers are coming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[120,3622,67,68,18,846,3917,3693],"class_list":["post-21592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-boston-celtics","tag-eastern-conference","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-nba","tag-paul-pierce","tag-td-garden","tag-western-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21592","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=21592"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21593,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21592\/revisions\/21593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}