The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics will open up their Eastern Conference semifinals series here on Tuesday night at TD Garden in Boston. Although it has been quite a while, these two teams have battled it out in the postseason multiple times throughout the years and now they will write another chapter in what became sort of like a postseason rivalry in 2000 and mid 2010s. The Cleveland Cavaliers battled back from a large deficit in their game seven victory against the Orlando Magic on Sunday afternoon. Now they will look to carry that momentum over into the opening game of this series on the road in Boston.
Meanwhile, the Boston Celtics had a little problem handling a Miami Heat team that was without Jimmy Butler for the entirety of the first round playoff series. Although they did allow Miami to pick up a victory in one of the games of the series, the little test they got from the Heat could be good for them in the second round against a much tougher Cleveland team. Boston is the odds on favored to advance in this series and get out of the Eastern Conference as well as many people expect the Celtics to be playing for an NBA championship at the end of this year’s playoffs.
For Cleveland, they will need to find other scoring options beside just Donovan Mitchell. They were given a little bit of hope in their game seven comeback as Caris Levert stepped up and made some huge buckets down the final stretch of the game. They will need plenty more of that, and they will be hoping to get Jaret Allen back early on in the series as I could give them a distinct advantage with Porzingis being out for the Celtics. If Jaret Allen can return early on in the series, he will have the opportunity to be a major X factor for Cleveland down the final stretch of games. He was dominant throughout the regular season and he was dominating the Orlando Magic throughout the first two games of their first round series and that is something they’ve missed over the last couple weeks.
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History Between These Two Teams These two franchises have done plenty of battles in the postseason, but that was years ago, and that was a very different era for both of these teams. Now it is a new era for the Boston Celtics and a very new era for the Cleveland Cavaliers, as they finally managed to get their first playoff series victory without LeBron James since the 1993 season. These two teams will look entirely different when they take the court on Tuesday night at TD Garden in Boston as they are filled with future Hall of Famers and bonafide role players and this should be a very solid series throughout the next couple of weeks.
The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics met multiple times throughout the regular season and over the past few seasons. Not much roster turnover, these two teams are very familiar with each other, and they should provide us with a solid back-and-forth series throughout the next couple of weeks. Plenty of people are counting out the Cleveland Cavaliers, but they have shown with their performances throughout the regular season against Boston that they are more than capable of holding their own against this tough Celtics team.
Boston and Cleveland met three times throughout the regular season and in all three games it was close and competitive as well as down to the wire. All three of the games were decided in the final, and although the Boston Celtics victories against Cleveland Cleveland still showed, they could hang with a mighty Celtics team, despite a talent deficiency. It is worth noting that two of those games took place in Boston and the Celtics picked up victories in both of those games and the one game that took place in Cleveland ended up being a Cleveland Cavaliers victory, and one of the best games of the regular season.
Today’s Predictions I expect this to be another back-and-forth competitive contest on Tuesday night in Boston. As I look for this game to be decided in the fourth-quarter, but in the end, I do look for the Boston Celtics to grab the victory here on Tuesday night. As Cleveland has not played well throughout the postseason early on as they were 0-3 against the Orlando Magic in Orlando. Boston has an even better record than Orlando did this season, and arguably the better home court advantage as well. I look for the Boston Celtics to grab the victory in this series opening game. Not only do I look for the Boston Celtics to grab the victory in this game, but I also look for them to cover the spread in the process.
Tips For Betting Boston has the best home record in the NBA this season, and they have been even better in terms of covering a point spread when playing at home and when favored in the game as well.
The Pick: Celtics-11.5 (-115) Picks given are the opinion of the writer, not Elitepickz pros. To get picks from some of the sharpest minds in the industry, sign up here and use code AB15 for 15% off any pass!
