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00:00The story has really been the same for the Boston Celtics so
00:07far in this 2024 NBA postseason for a second consecutive round.
00:12The Celtics win in five for a third straight year. Boston
00:17advances to the Eastern Conference Finals and when the
00:20Celtics win, they often do so by at least 13 points. Last
00:26night, 15-point win for Boston over Cleveland, 113-98, but
00:32that's not truly the full story. Cleveland got dealt an
00:36awful hand in terms of injury luck in this series. No
00:39Donovan Mitchell for a second consecutive game. A couple of
00:42hours before tip last night, Karis Levert ruled out Jarrett
00:46Allen, did not play in any of the five contests in this
00:50second-round series, so Cleveland closed as a 16-point
00:55underdog. If you were watching the early line yesterday, we
00:58did not anticipate to see Spida, so the line was 14-and-a-half.
01:03I hope, I pray for you that you bet Boston at that number so
01:08the Celtics covered in a game five victory by 15 points and
01:12didn't miss out by just a lone point last night inside TD
01:16Garden. Yeah, and also you're taking a look at some of those
01:19superstars. We always preface this. When you have a chance
01:21for a blowout in a game, which means double digits are more
01:24late in the game, that usually hurts your superstar players.
01:27Now, correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think Jason Tatum's 25
01:30was a casher on his actual points prop total yesterday. It
01:33was not. Of course, Jalen Browns at 11 did not do that,
01:35so the superstars usually get hurt a bit, but we knew it was
01:38a foregone conclusion. The Celtics were going to win that
01:40game. It was just a matter of by how much, and also the
01:42Cavaliers so dinged up, down basically three major players
01:46on their team for this series coming into that game last
01:49night, 48% from the floor. They actually shot 42% from three-point
01:52range, 13 of 31. But as we said yesterday, you probably have to
01:56crank up over 40 of those and make probably half of those to
01:59hang around, and we knew that was going to be so, so hard to
02:01do, even though you could say, well, Donny, round one, see the
02:03Miami Heat knock down 23 three-point shots. That's an
02:06anomaly. We didn't expect the Cavaliers to do that, but also
02:09moving forward here, Ben, what do we anticipate from the
02:12Boston Celtics? Because I understand they're probably the
02:14best team in the NBA, but we haven't seen an easier run to
02:17an NBA Finals possibly than what we're actually going to get
02:20out of the Boston Celtics. Now, credit them. You still have to
02:23win the games, and these are little games on the schedule.
02:25You can't say, oh, they got to play an all-star team every
02:27night to prove their worth. I just want to see how that winds
02:29up in the NBA Finals, because there's two trains of thought.
02:32You face adversity, you got to the Finals, you're ready to go,
02:35and or what we cruised, and we didn't really have any real
02:38playoff games technically here to sweat it out, and now we find
02:41ourselves up against, let's just say, the Denver Nuggets. I'm
02:43interested in that, but Boston was supposed to win last night
02:45and by margin, and they were right around that number.
02:48Through the Eastern Conference, the path for the Celtics back to
02:52the NBA Finals will be rather easy, at least by relative
02:56standard. Once they reach the NBA Finals, any team out of the
02:59West right now, even with OKC down 3-2, we'll see what happens
03:04tonight in Game 6 between the Nuggets and the Timberwolves as
03:07well. Whatever happens, there will be a tough test on the
03:11other side for the Boston Celtics into the NBA Finals if
03:15they get to that point, but into the Eastern Conference
03:17Finals for a third straight year, the fourth time in the
03:21last five NBA seasons. But you do have to give Boston credit.
03:25Eight playoff victories for the Seas. They have won seven of
03:28the eight by at least 13 points. Again, depending on where you
03:32got the number last night, they have either covered in six or
03:36seven of the eight. We'll call it six and two against the
03:40number with that closing line at 16 points in favor of the
03:44Seas, but they haven't just been winning games they've been
03:47expected to, where they've been booked as at least a seven and
03:50a half point favorite in all ten playoff games by a bucket or
03:53two. They have been consistently winning by double digits over
03:58in five of their ten playoff games. Total closed at 204 and a
04:02hook last night. A couple of props, though, for the Cleveland
04:06Cavaliers that we highlighted yesterday. The German guy, but
04:09really from the Chicagoland area, Matt Strews, nine dimes
04:13yesterday. His assist prop was three and a half. We highlighted
04:16it for you over with some plus money. He also made three
04:20triples. Jason Tatum, who's coming off back-to-back games
04:23in the land of 33 points in both, only finishes with 25 DRS,
04:28but for the first time in the ten playoff games for Boston
04:32this postseason, he makes more than two threes. He hit three
04:36triples last night in Beantown. Yeah, exactly. Finally, it was
04:40one of those things where no matter what he does, he could
04:42shoot 15 times or three times. He's going to make two three
04:44point shots. He's just never going to make three, and he
04:47finally busted through. How about Al Horford after a down
04:49game previously? Six three-point shots made, and also
04:52Derek White was a little bit below those numbers that we
04:54usually know. He makes four three-point shots yesterday,
04:56but Peyton Pritchard, I'm telling you right now, 21
04:58minutes. That guy's just designed to do wide-open
05:00three-point shots. He knocks down three. The Celtics are a
05:03deep team. Porzingis coming back on the horizon. Let's just
05:06see who it's going to be, the New York Knicks or the Pacers
05:08they're going to face next round. Well, I have to follow
05:11KP's status for the Eastern Conference Finals. That is
05:14when it might rear its ugly head if there is a gap for
05:18Boston.