Miami Heat vs Boston Celtics betting tips and predictions for Tuesday’s NBA Eastern Conference Finals Game 1 on ESPN. The Heat and Celtics open their series in Miami in what is a much anticipated re-match of the 2020 Eastern Conference Finals. Read on for all our free predictions and betting tips.
Miami Heat
Heading into this series there are a lot of questions surrounding Miami, particularly on the offensive end where they’ve struggled at times during their postseason run. Jimmy Butler has jumped out as their primary scorer and is averaging 28.7 points per game, however if there’s one thing that we’ve learned in these playoffs it’s that a one superstar player isn’t enough to beat the Boston Celtics.
So I’m interested to see how the Heat set up their game plan for Game 1 after losing 2 of the 3 meetings against the Celtics during the regular season. They enter tonight’s game having 3 extra days of rest thanks to their 4-2 series win over Philly, while Boston had to play all 7 vs Milwaukee. Miami is on a 9 game win streak in home games and they’ve won 14 of their last 18 games overall.
Boston Celtics
The win over Milwaukee on Sunday came at a price as the Celtics have probably lost Marcus Smart for Game 1 as he is questionable with a foot problem. The Cs are happy to be back in the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2020, they enter the series as slight underdogs in the opener, but are favorites to go through in the end.
Boston has covered the spread in 9 straight on the road and in 13 of 19 against Miami, so optimism will be on a high despite having played a grueling series vs Milwaukee. One more positive worth mentioning from the Celtics’ perspective is that they won the only meeting played in Miami during the regular season 95-78, let’ see if they can use that to their advantage tonight.
I like the Celtics in Game 1. Miami will have trouble guarding the Tatum/Brown duo, while Boston’s defense is well equipped to deal with Jimmy Butler after disposing of Kevin Durant and Giannis Antetokounmpo in these playoffs. Take the Celtics to upset the odds and cover on the road in the series opener.
Miami Heat vs Boston Celtics Predictions & Odds
The projected total for tonight’s game has been set at 204 points and believe it or not I feel like that is a bit high of a number. Why? Well, one reason is these two teams are the 1st and 2nd ranked defenses in these playoffs when it comes to giving up points per game.
Miami is allowing just 97.5 per game, while the Celtics are at 101.8 per game which isn’t too far behind. The only game played in Miami finished with a combined point total of just 172 points, so this game could very easily head into that direction. Miami has trended towards the under a lot lately with 9 of their las 11 games cashing on that.
Since April 1st they’ve had just 2 games go over the total at FTX Arena. Boston has also gone under the total in 5 of their last 7 games, they held Miami twice already under 100 points this season and after seeing what they did to Giannis and co. in Game 7 this Sunday, I wouldn’t be surprised if that is the case in tonight’s game. Either way, backing the under seems like a must bet for Game 1 on Tuesday, so let’s go with that.
