INDIAN COWBOY
Pistons/Sixers Over 178.5 (POD)
Did you watch the first game between these 2 teams? Something should have been abundantly clear as the game was nearing an end, the Pistons completely went through a road block and could not score the ball late. In fact, the Pistons have lost to the Sixers the last 3 games outright. It just goes to show the Sixers are a pain in the neck of a matchup for this squad and frankly that game should have gone under. I look for this game to not do the same as the Pistons will not let down the gas on a team that they led by 15 and will continue to run up the points as all this team has heard is how they lost the first game of the series throughout the week. I can only imagine the frustration on the once Champion and I expect this team to come out fired. In that same token, I also expect the Sixers continue their pace of scoring as the Pistons scored just 35 points in the second half and that game totaled at 176 in the end. I can't see that happening today, as I expect a total in the mid 180's when all is set and done. The uner has hit relentlessly in this series, but the tide turns today.
Celtics -15
This team is completely fired up and focused as they absolutely hammered the Hawks in the first game. The atmosphere in Boston is electric and I expect the Hawks to come back home down 0-2 and having gotten their behinds wiped once again by Boston on the road. Look, the Hawks can hang tough early on, but the fact that this team has no bench comes back and bites them. The Celtics bench players get thrilled just to play and that was seen late in the season when they got far more minutes and still covered those ballgames as they want to impress their role players. Remember, the Celtics bench with Posey, Powe, Cassell and Allen scored a total of 33 points. This team is not planning on letting go of the gas pedal today as they will only try to beat the Hawks by even further today. The Hawks will be in a heap of trouble today overall as one thing is abundantly clear in these playoff series this year, home teams are dominating and that is one of the reasons for my slow start as typically in game 2, the road teams make a step forward, but not in this case with the only exception being the Raptors. The Celtics take great pride in their defense and they did not let the Hawks top 20 points in 2 of the quarters they played and this team is looking forward for the sweep and then rest. Hawks are 1-7 ATS on the road against teams with a winning% of greater than 60, the Celtics are 7-0 ATS against teams that have a road winning % of less than .400%.
Hawks/Celtics Over 185
In hindsight, this should have been my POD given the write-up that I have for this, but that's all right. You know what this game is indicative of? The Mavericks/Hornets game 2. Why? Well, here you have another sitatuation in which the road team is going to get spanked and yet the total will go over. In other words, a rare favorite/over situation. The last game these 2 teams played, the total fell right at 185 - that is given the fact the Hawks had a total of 35 points in quarter 2 and quarter 3. Combine the fact that the Hawks hit this game with more motivation today, the Celtics continue their hot shooting at home not to mention their bench rolling up points left and right, what you have is the makings for a similar score by the Celtics except the Hawks drum up more than 90 points in total offense. Look for plenty of offense in this game as the Celtics are likely to score in the range of 110-120 and the Hawks are likely to score in the range of 90-100 tonight. The under is predominant in these meetings, but not tonight
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