Milwaukee Bucks vs Boston Celtics betting tips and predictions for Monday’s NBA Eastern Conference Playoff game on TNT. The Boston Celtics cannot afford to go down 3-1 in their series against the Milwaukee Bucks as the two teams meet up for Game 4 tonight at Fiserv Forum. Read on for all our free predictions and betting tips.
Milwaukee Bucks
The Bucks were lucky to edge out the Celtics in Game 4 after a controversial call by the officials late in the game and now they look to carry on with the momentum in Game 4 as well. Giannis Antetokounmpo became the first player in these playoffs to score 40 points against the Celtics defense as he finished with 42, 12 rebounds and 8 assists.
It took him 30 shots to get to that many points, but the Bucks won’t mind it as he has to pick up the slack in the absence of Khris Middleton. Jrue Holiday also played well with 25 points, he too took 30 shots and was way less efficient than Giannis.
Milwaukee didn’t impress offensively, but they were able to hold Boston to just 36% shooting from the field. A performance like that tonight will surely do them well, but the question is are they capable of doing it in back-to-back games?
Boston Celtics
Jayson Tatum played his worst game of the playoffs in Game 3 as he finished with just 10 points on 4-for-19 shooting. And yet the Celtics still had a chance to win in the end. That just shows how much of a defensive juggernaut this team is. They held the Bucks to just 40% shooting from the field and only 26% from three. Jaylen Brown did his part with 27, while 35-year old Al Horford turned back the clock and added 22 points and 16 rebounds.
Let us now kid ourselves though, Boston will only go as far as Tatum takes them and he needs to sharpen up tonight after that disastrous showing in Game 3. He’s fully capable of doing so after averaging over 30 points vs Milwaukee during the regular season. Boston is 7-0 ATS in their last 7 road games and have covered the spread in 5 straight at Milwaukee
I fully expect Boston to show up here, going down 3-1 before going back to Boston would be a disaster as not many teams in the NBA have came back from that deficit. Tatum is going to play better and Giannis won’t be allowed to have another 40-point game. Back the Celtics to cover on the road.
Milwaukee Bucks vs Boston Celtics Predictions & Odds
The 3 games in this series have been nothing like the 4 regular season meetings between these two teams as they are combining to average just a tad over 196 points per game. That’s even less than what the Bucks and Bulls averaged in the 1st round, but nobody is surprised by these numbers as both teams take a lot of pride in how they handle themselves on the defensive end. Milwaukee has gone under in all 8 postseason games so far, while the Celtics are 5-1 in favour of the under in their last 6 games.
Opponents are scoring just 96.9 points per game vs the Bucks this postseason, while against the Celtics that number is just 103.7 points. They rank 1st and 4th in that category, so whoever wants to advance from this series will do so on the defensive end. I don’t expect much to change in Game 4, the pace of play has been really slow in all 3 games played so far. Tatum played a horrible game on Saturday, with him bouncing back the Celtics total might go up a bit, but then again even if that does happen I still don’t see how these teams go over the total. Let’s back the under once again.
