Boston Celtics vs Atlanta Hawks betting tips and predictions for Tuesday’s NBA Playoffs game on NBA TV. After a dominant performance in Game 1, the Celtics look to take full control of their series against Atlanta as the two teams lock horns for Game 2. Read on for all our free predictions and betting tips.
Boston Celtics
Despite a cut on his shooting hand, Jaylen Brown elevated his game in the series opener over the weekend and scored 29 points to lead Boston to a convincing 112-99 victory. Brown also added 12 rebounds, while Jayson Tatum finished with 25 and 11 boards himself. When the Celtics duo produces numbers like that, even teams better than Atlanta will have a hard time beating them.
What stood out to me the most in that victory was the Celtics perimeter defense, they shut down the Hawks completely as the visitors went just 5-for-29 from distance. A repeat of that performance would do them well tonight, they’ve now beaten Atlanta 6 games in a row, covering the spread in all 6 of them.
Atlanta Hawks
Saturday’s defeat was the 10th in 14 road games for the Hawks who are desperately trying to get something going here. Trae Young was the focus of the Celtics defense and he couldn’t do much as the Cs swamped him with multiple defenders. As a result he finished with just 16 point on 5-for-18 from the field, while making just 1 of 5 three point attempts.
Dejounte Murray was the high point man with 24 points, but even he had to take 25 shots from the field to get there. Atlanta needs to pay a lot more attention to the rebounding in Game 2 as they finished with only 45 of them compared to Boston’s 58 in Game 1. A Quin Snyder led team will always take good care of the basketball, that was evident in Saturday’s game when Atlanta had just 11 turnovers, but shooting under 39% from the field won’t get this team far in this series.
Boston heads into this one as double-digit favorites once again, they’ve covered in their last 6 wins over East teams, plus at TD Garden they’ve been invincible winning their last 8. The Celtics look really focused here, with the injury to Giannis they are now the frontrunners to win the East. They won’t be playing around here, back Boston to take care of business.
Boston Celtics vs Atlanta Hawks Predictions & Odds
We saw Boston’s signature defense on display in the series opener as they held Atlanta to just 99 points. This team finished with the 3rd best defensive efficiency allowing just 108.7 possessions per game, with only Cleveland and Memphis finishing in front of them. It could be another long night for the Hawks here if they don’t make adjustments.
The projected total has been set at 228 points, which means we would need the Celtics to score 129 if they keep the Hawks under 100 points again, that sounds a bit unrealistic for a playoff game. The under has cashed in 6 of 8 meetings between the two teams, with the last 10 averaging 221.4 points per game I feel like backing the under is the way to go here.
