Denver Nuggets at Boston Celtics Betting Odds


Opening Line: Nuggets +5 / Celtics -5 O/U 206

Time: 7 PM EST Wednesday March 24, 2010 on ESPN

Tonight in a non-conference game in Beantown the Boston Celtics host the Denver Nuggets. Even though both teams will make the playoffs and host a 1st round playoff series every remaining game is still important for each team.

The Celtics are currently tied in 3rd place with Atlanta in the East and they want to end the season in the 3rd position so they do not have to face Cleveland in the 2nd round of the playoffs. The Nuggets are tied for 2nd in the West with Dallas and want to stay in 2nd so they can host a possible 2nd round playoff series.

The Celtics are coming off a loss and are 6-4 in their last 10 games and the Nuggets have dropped 2 straight and are 7-3 in their last 10 games.

This season the Celtics are 21-12 at home and 28-40-2 ATS and the Nuggets are 17-18 on the road and 31-36-4 ATS.

In their last games the Nuggets lost to the New York Knicks 109-104 last night and the Celtics lost to the Utah Jazz 110-97 on Monday night.

The Celtics have won 3 straight and 8 of their last 12 at home.

The Celtics have the best defense in the league only allowing an average of 94.4 ppg. They have to play better defense than they did in their last game against the Nuggets losing 114-105 and allowing Denver, who was at home, to shoot 51.3%.

The Nuggets really miss Kenyon Martin (11.8 ppg 9.6 rpg), especially on the boards. Martin has missed 9 straight games and is Denver's leading rebounder and last night the Knicks, who are not a good rebounding team, had 6 more boards in the win. Martin is still day-to-day, but it does not look as if he will play tonight.

If Martin cannot go the Boston big men of Kendrick Perkins (10.4 ppg 7.7 rpg) and Kevin Garnett (14.2 ppg 7.4 rpg) may have big games. If Denver drops in the lane to keep these guys from killing them on the boards Ray Allen (16.2 ppg) and Paul Pierce (18 ppg) will get open looks from deep.

Carmelo Anthony (28.9 ppg) and Chauncey Billups (20 ppg) will have to have good scoring games for the Nuggets to win tonight.

The Celtics have to play solid D in this game, as they are not a high scoring team ranking 19th in the league in scoring (98.8 ppg).

Betting Trends

Boston is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games, 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games as a favorite, and has an Over record of 5-2 in their last 7 games as a favorite of 5.0-10.5.

Denver is 0-5 ATS in their last 5 games, 3-1-2 ATS in their last 6 games as a road underdog, and has an Under record of 4-0 in their last 4 games.

In 7 of the last 9 games between these 2 teams the total has gone Over.

Our Selection : Let's try Denver at +4.5 as a small play.


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