Boston Celtics vs Atlanta Hawks betting tips and predictions for Tuesday’s NBA Playoffs game on TNT. Boston looks to close out the Atlanta Hawks as they host Game 5 at TD Garden holding a comfortable 3-1 lead. Read on for all our free predictions and betting tips.
Boston Celtics
Game 4 was in a lot of ways similar to Game 3, but only this time around the Celtics were able to get enough timely stops to get a victory. They shot the ball over 50% from the field for the 3rd game in a row, led by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown with each of them dropping 31 points.
That was the 8th Celtics victory over Atlanta in the last 9 meetings, for Game 5 ESPN’s Analytics are giving Boston a 90.9% chance to finish the series on their home floor. They open as 13-point favorites, which is exactly the number they won both home games earlier in the series. In their last 5 home games the Celtics are a perfect 5-0 ATS overall, while against Atlanta they’ve covered in 6 straight games at TD Garden.
Atlanta Hawks
If things weren’t already bad, the Hawks received some really discouraging news yesterday as Dejounte Murray has been suspended for Game 5 after bumping and official towards the end of Game 4 a couple of days ago. With their 2nd best player now out, chances of them extending this series are very slim.
Trae Young did his best to keep them alive in the series with 35 points and 15 assists in the previous game, but when your bench produces just 21 points it’s hard to expect a win in the postseason. Atlanta also struggled with rebounding in that game, they’ll need to address that tonight. It’s unclear who will start in place of Murray, my guess is it’s either going to be Bogdan Bogdanovic or Saddiq Bey.
It won’t make much of a difference whoever starts, the Celtics are eager to get this series over with as the Philadelphia 76ers are patiently waiting for them in the next round. The duo of Tatum and Brown is playing at a high level, if they stick to their game plan they’re winning this one in a blowout. Take the Celtics at home.
Boston Celtics vs Atlanta Hawks Predictions & Odds
The tempo was really out of control the past 2 games which was to be expected as that’s just how Atlanta plays at home. Now with the series returning back to Boston things should return back to normal. Atlanta was able to put up just 99 and 106 points in the opening 2 games of the series, and with their 2nd best player out they’ll need to somehow make up for his 20 points per game.
Not only that, he also plays a huge part whenever Trae Young heads to the bench, then the offense switches to Murray completely. I’m not very optimistic for the Hawks in this game, they’re going up against a top 3 defense in terms of efficiency. The under has cashed in 4 of their last 5 games played on a Tuesday, while for the Celtics this has also happened in 6 of their last 7 games played on that day at TD Garden. I’ll be backing the under in this game.
