Picking Celtics Over Pelicans
Current odds for the Boston Celtics is around 1.53.
The Boston Celtics are finally playing again after a very long period of rest since they last played on Jan. 11 in Philadelphia over in the U.K. Will rust be a factor? Maybe. Even so I'm leaning towards the Celtics here against the New Orleans Pelicans. The Celtics have the league's best defense and they are playing at home. It also helps that the Celtics are currently on their second longest win streak of the season at 7 games. New Orleans has been playing well with 4 wins in their last 6 games but I think Celtics will manage to win a close game here and extend their streak.
My pick is the Boston Celtics ML.
Game starts in about 5 hours.
Final result was New Orleans won 116-113 in OT.
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Rather than rust, think long rests generally great for a team's ability to win; whereas Pelicans only on one-day's rest.
that said, really like the Pelicans as they've been having to learn to gell all season.
Tough call, but moneyline makes sense.
Pelicans are on the playoff bubble. Have no idea what they do at the trade deadline if they are still near .500.
We'd be VERY disappointed if they didn't stand pat or add a piece. Just as we were VERY disappointed the Bulls didn't get their 100% full shot vs Celtics bc Rondo went down-- Rondo late in the year had become the key glue making that team work, as evidenced by their 2-0 start in that series until he went down (and lost the next 4).
A guy like Rondo (or Ball) takes awhile for a team to adjust, but when they adjust it becomes a thing of beauty. Main point: when you have a passy passer, the other 4 guys take awhile to relearn TEAM basketball, and thus it takes awhile for them to cut to the hoop without the ball or just keep moving on offense. Passing creates more passing, it's a virus, but it takes time for even viruses to spread. We expect Pelicans to get better each day, and it helps that Boogie absolutely loves Rondo, which is much different than last year in Chicago when no one had Rondo's back.
Anyway, we think Pelicans can be a big surprise this year; ironic, bc everyone has already given up on the Boogie + AD experiment, but that's bc fans (and owners) are EXTREMELY impatient people.