{"id":23125,"date":"2012-05-21T10:07:57","date_gmt":"2012-05-21T15:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=23125"},"modified":"2012-05-21T10:07:57","modified_gmt":"2012-05-21T15:07:57","slug":"2012-nba-playoffs-philadelphia-76ers-vs-boston-celtics-game-5-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/2012-nba-playoffs-philadelphia-76ers-vs-boston-celtics-game-5-preview-23125\/","title":{"rendered":"2012 NBA Playoffs: Philadelphia 76ers vs. Boston Celtics, Game 5 Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Philadelphia 76ers at Boston Celtics
\nMonday, 5\/21\/12, 7:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 TNT
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Boston -5.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Boston -5.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 174
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 173.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Spurs<\/a>
Boston Celtics PG Rajon Rondo will need to be at his best against the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 5 on Monday night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Philadelphia may head back to the Wells Fargo Center facing elimination in Game 6 if this series holds true to form, as the two teams have alternated wins and losses over the first four games.\u00a0 The Sixers are coming off a 92-83 win over the Celtics as two-point home favorites in Game 4, as they managed to overcome an 18-point, third-quarter deficit.\u00a0 \u201cThey hit us early and put us in a bad position,\u201d commented 76ers guard Jrue Holiday.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve always been the underdogs, all we can do is fight.\u201d\u00a0 Philadelphia is 4-5 ATS as a road underdog of 3.5 to 6 points, while the \u201cunder\u201d is 5-4 in those contests.<\/p>\n

The 76ers are averaging 87.2 points per game during the postseason after averaging 93.6 points per game during the regular season.\u00a0 Philadelphia is 4-1 when being held under 90 points during the 2012 NBA playoffs, which is a surprise due to the team\u2019s 2-18 mark when falling short of that number during the regular season.\u00a0 Don\u2019t expect a scoring outburst in Game 5, with the franchise going over the century mark just five times in its past 53 postseason contests.<\/p>\n

Boston may get caught thinking about what could have been in this contest, as the aging roster missed out the opportunity to potentially close this series on Monday night.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a swing game, but it\u2019s a swing game for both teams,\u201d commented Celtics head coach Doc Rivers.\u00a0 His aging roster is dealing with numerous nagging injuries, including Ray Allen with bone spurs in his ankle and Paul Pierce nursing a knee injury.\u00a0 Boston is 20-25 ATS as a favorite this season, including a 6-6 ATS mark when laying 3.5 to 6 points.<\/p>\n

The Celtics will need a major performance from point guard Rajon Rondo in order to head back to the City of Brotherly love with a 3-2 advantage, as he\u2019s averaging 16.0 points and 12.9 assists in the playoffs.\u00a0 He managed to score 15 points and dish out 15 assists in the Game 4 setback, but will need to orchestrate the offense with more efficiency in half-court sets.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the 76ers due to their 7-3 ATS record on the road, while the Celtics are 4-17 ATS in their last 21 playoff games as a favorite of 5.0 to 10.5 points.<\/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":"

Philadelphia 76ers at Boston Celtics Monday, 5\/21\/12, 7:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 TNT Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Boston -5.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Boston -5.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 174 Current Total:\u00a0 173.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Philadelphia may head back to the Wells Fargo Center facing elimination in Game 6 if this series holds true to form, as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[6680,120,943,846,832,197,1555],"class_list":["post-23125","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-paul-pierce","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-rajon-rondo","tag-ray-allen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23125","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=23125"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23126,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23125\/revisions\/23126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}