{"id":23080,"date":"2012-05-16T08:43:29","date_gmt":"2012-05-16T13:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=23080"},"modified":"2012-05-16T08:43:29","modified_gmt":"2012-05-16T13:43:29","slug":"celtics-vs-76ers-game-3-philadelphia-tries-to-remain-perfect-at-the-wells-fargo-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/celtics-vs-76ers-game-3-philadelphia-tries-to-remain-perfect-at-the-wells-fargo-center-23080\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtics vs. 76ers Game 3: Philadelphia Tries to Remain Perfect at the Wells Fargo Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boston Celtics at Philadelphia 76ers
\nWednesday, 5\/16\/12, 7:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 TNT
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Philadelphia -2.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Philadelphia -2
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 172.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 172
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Philadelphia 76ers PG Jrue Holiday leads the team in scoring during the 2012 NBA playoffs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Boston was unable to maintain its homecourt advantage in its best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Philadelphia 76ers, dropping an 82-81 decision as 4.5-point favorites in Game 2 on Monday night.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t like the fact that we took almost three quarters to play the right way,\u201d commented Celtics head coach Doc Rivers, outscoring the Sixers by seven points in the final 12 minutes and still losing by a point.\u00a0 The franchise lost two of three road games to the Atlanta Hawks in its first-round series.\u00a0 \u00a0 Boston is 3-1 ATS as a road underdog of three points or less this season.<\/p>\n

The Celtics will need center Kevin Garnett to turn back the clock again, as he scored just 14 points in defeat, which directly followed a 28-point performance in a Game 1 victory.\u00a0 He leads the team in averaging 19.5 points and 10.8 rebounds per game.\u00a0 Point guard Rajon Rondo is still the most important player on the offensive end, averaging 12.7 assists per game, as he needs to attack the basket and create opportunities for other players to score.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia returns to the Wells Fargo Center with plenty of confidence, considering it split in Boston and won all three home games against the Chicago Bulls in the first round.\u00a0 \u201cWe like playing against Boston,\u201d commented 76ers point guard Jrue Holiday.\u00a0 \u201cWe think we match up well against them.\u201d\u00a0 He is averaging a team-high 16.9 points, which is up from his 13.5-point average during the regular season.\u00a0 Philadelphia is 7-9 ATS as a home favorite of three points or less over the last two-plus campaigns, with the \u201cunder\u201d being 11-5 in that situation.<\/p>\n

The 76ers will need to remain focused after picking up their first playoff win in Boston since 1982, which means their defensive intensity must continue.\u00a0 Philadelphia hasn\u2019t allowed more than 92 points over the past seven games since surrendering 103 to the Bulls in Game 1 of the previous round.\u00a0 The team isn\u2019t going to win this series on the offensive end, considering it hasn\u2019t recorded more assists than its opponent in any of the eight games during the 2012 NBA playoffs.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Celtics due to their 8-2-1 ATS mark as an underdog of 4.5 or fewer points, while the 76ers are 2-6 ATS as a favorite in that point range.<\/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 Philadelphia 76ers Wednesday, 5\/16\/12, 7:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 TNT Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Philadelphia -2.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Philadelphia -2 Opening Total:\u00a0 172.5 Current Total:\u00a0 172 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Boston was unable to maintain its homecourt advantage in its best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Philadelphia 76ers, dropping an 82-81 decision […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":15696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[6680,120,943,764,832,6293],"class_list":["post-23080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-2012-nba-playoffs","tag-boston-celtics","tag-jrue-holiday","tag-kevin-garnett","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-wells-fargo-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23080","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=23080"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23082,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23080\/revisions\/23082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}