NBA Finals Betting Now a Best of Three
Staring at a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals with 12 minutes to play in Game 4, Boston's strong fourth quarter effort gave the Celtics the 96-89 win to knot the series two wins apiece. Paul Pierce led the C's with 19 points, but it was the Beantown bench that proved to be the difference by outscoring the Lakers 36-18. Doc Rivers' club now looks to take a 3-2 lead back to LA when the two teams meet for Game 5 on Sunday.
Andrew Bynum, please pick up the Blue and Gold courtesy phone.
The starting center for the Los Angeles Lakers wasn’t on the floor much during Thursday’s Game 4 versus the Boston Celtics, and it showed. Bynum played just 12 minutes and left the basketball game for good with 2:13 remaining in the third quarter and the Lakers down by one. The Celtics would stretch that lead to 11 points and hold on for a critical 96-89 victory, paying out as 4-point favorites and tying the NBA Finals at 2-2.
Without Bynum clogging the lane, Glen “Big Baby” Davis repeatedly got to the basket and ended the night with 18 points in 22 minutes of stellar relief work. Lamar Odom had another useful game for Los Angeles with 10 points on 5-of-10 shooting and seven rebounds, but finished at minus-5. That was indeed the difference in this contest.
Boston outscored the Lakers 54-34 in the paint and out-rebounded them 41-34 to overcome an ugly first half, although not quite enough to keep the 'under' from cashing in on the total of 190 points.
Bynum’s health is clearly the storyline going into Game 5 on Sunday (8:00 p.m. ET, ABC). He was in the dressing room for the start of the second half after playing the opening 6:30 of the first. Coach Phil Jackson told ESPN’s Doris Burke at halftime that Bynum had no elevation, a casualty of the torn meniscus and resultant swelling in his right knee.
There were some doubts that Bynum would even play Game 4 after looking far less than 100 percent during the team shootaround. “He had a little bit of a struggle this morning,” Jackson told reporters. “He couldn’t do anything on the court.”
Not coincidentally, the betting odds on the Celtics moved from -3½ at the open to -4 on Thursday afternoon. Consensus reports had 61 percent support for Boston – another tough day for the books as bettors continue to ride the Zigzag Express to the pay window. The opening lines for Game 5 had the Celtics once again favored by 3½ points, this time with the over/under dipping to 189. That’s four games in a row the total has been trimmed.
The secondary storyline, at least from a handicapping perspective, has to do with the battle between Paul Pierce and Ron Artest. It was Pierce winning the battle handily in Game 4 with 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting to lead all Celtics. The adjustment: running Pierce on the pick and roll, as Artest had difficulty moving his wide body (6-foot-7, 260 pounds) through Boston’s screens. Pierce also led the team with five assists as Rajon Rondo (5-of-15 for 10 points and three assists) had a relatively poor game for the C’s – at least on offense.
We can expect more of the same on Sunday. What can L.A. do to stop it? At times in Game 4, Artest switched to cover Kevin Garnett while Kobe Bryant handled Pierce. That might not work for extended periods of time, though.
The Lakers had a similar look in 2008 when they were defeated by Boston in six games and Pierce was named Finals MVP. What they need is Bynum impeding everyone’s progress to the cup, and what handicappers need is to monitor his status for Game 5 before automatically dialing up the Lakers as a zigzag selection.
That leaves us with the most important statistic for Sunday: Two, as in two days of rest for Bynum and his famous right knee. On the season, the Lakers are 13-4 (7-9-1 ATS) playing after two days off, while Boston is 10-4 (9-5 ATS). Even better for Celtic supporters, their heroes are 6-1 SU and 7-0 ATS when both they and their opponents are playing on two days of rest. Los Angeles is 4-2 SU and 2-3 ATS in that situation. Nonetheless, allowing Bynum those extra 24 hours to heal gives the Lakers a lot more betting value than they had going into Game 4. We’ll see if 24 hours is enough.
Staring at a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals with 12 minutes to play in Game 4, Boston's strong fourth quarter effort gave the Celtics the 96-89 win to knot the series two wins apiece. Paul Pierce led the C's with 19 points, but it was the Beantown bench that proved to be the difference by outscoring the Lakers 36-18. Doc Rivers' club now looks to take a 3-2 lead back to LA when the two teams meet for Game 5 on Sunday.
Andrew Bynum, please pick up the Blue and Gold courtesy phone.
The starting center for the Los Angeles Lakers wasn’t on the floor much during Thursday’s Game 4 versus the Boston Celtics, and it showed. Bynum played just 12 minutes and left the basketball game for good with 2:13 remaining in the third quarter and the Lakers down by one. The Celtics would stretch that lead to 11 points and hold on for a critical 96-89 victory, paying out as 4-point favorites and tying the NBA Finals at 2-2.
Without Bynum clogging the lane, Glen “Big Baby” Davis repeatedly got to the basket and ended the night with 18 points in 22 minutes of stellar relief work. Lamar Odom had another useful game for Los Angeles with 10 points on 5-of-10 shooting and seven rebounds, but finished at minus-5. That was indeed the difference in this contest.
Boston outscored the Lakers 54-34 in the paint and out-rebounded them 41-34 to overcome an ugly first half, although not quite enough to keep the 'under' from cashing in on the total of 190 points.
Bynum’s health is clearly the storyline going into Game 5 on Sunday (8:00 p.m. ET, ABC). He was in the dressing room for the start of the second half after playing the opening 6:30 of the first. Coach Phil Jackson told ESPN’s Doris Burke at halftime that Bynum had no elevation, a casualty of the torn meniscus and resultant swelling in his right knee.
There were some doubts that Bynum would even play Game 4 after looking far less than 100 percent during the team shootaround. “He had a little bit of a struggle this morning,” Jackson told reporters. “He couldn’t do anything on the court.”
Not coincidentally, the betting odds on the Celtics moved from -3½ at the open to -4 on Thursday afternoon. Consensus reports had 61 percent support for Boston – another tough day for the books as bettors continue to ride the Zigzag Express to the pay window. The opening lines for Game 5 had the Celtics once again favored by 3½ points, this time with the over/under dipping to 189. That’s four games in a row the total has been trimmed.
The secondary storyline, at least from a handicapping perspective, has to do with the battle between Paul Pierce and Ron Artest. It was Pierce winning the battle handily in Game 4 with 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting to lead all Celtics. The adjustment: running Pierce on the pick and roll, as Artest had difficulty moving his wide body (6-foot-7, 260 pounds) through Boston’s screens. Pierce also led the team with five assists as Rajon Rondo (5-of-15 for 10 points and three assists) had a relatively poor game for the C’s – at least on offense.
We can expect more of the same on Sunday. What can L.A. do to stop it? At times in Game 4, Artest switched to cover Kevin Garnett while Kobe Bryant handled Pierce. That might not work for extended periods of time, though.
The Lakers had a similar look in 2008 when they were defeated by Boston in six games and Pierce was named Finals MVP. What they need is Bynum impeding everyone’s progress to the cup, and what handicappers need is to monitor his status for Game 5 before automatically dialing up the Lakers as a zigzag selection.
That leaves us with the most important statistic for Sunday: Two, as in two days of rest for Bynum and his famous right knee. On the season, the Lakers are 13-4 (7-9-1 ATS) playing after two days off, while Boston is 10-4 (9-5 ATS). Even better for Celtic supporters, their heroes are 6-1 SU and 7-0 ATS when both they and their opponents are playing on two days of rest. Los Angeles is 4-2 SU and 2-3 ATS in that situation. Nonetheless, allowing Bynum those extra 24 hours to heal gives the Lakers a lot more betting value than they had going into Game 4. We’ll see if 24 hours is enough.
