Celtics Staying Relevant in Eastern Conference Playoff Discussion

When the Boston Celtics lost their star point guard, Rajon Rondo, to injury in late January, many wrote them off as a legitimately playoff-bound team. However, they have performed stunningly well without him, and find themselves currently sitting with the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference. In fact, they’re 14-5 without Rondo, and 8-2 against teams with winning records.

The Celtics play a pretty ugly brand of basketball, but it works and the wins keep racking up. This past week, the Celtics defeated three of their primary rivals in the Eastern Conference back to back to back to further solidify their standing. This mini-streak began last Tuesday with a 109-101 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. Boston was one-point favorites in the match, and came away with a hard-fought victory, due in large part to Celtic guard Avery Bradley’s season-high 22 point performance.

The very next night, Boston faced a much tougher opponent on the road, the Indiana Pacers, and came away with a gritty 83-81 win on a last-second Jeff Green layup.

“We were flat tonight and they got into us,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “Indiana was great and pushed us around the floor in the first half. I thought we responded well in the second half; we just hang around. That’s what we’ve been doing all year, just hanging around and we stole the game.”

The Pacers were 8.5-point favorites in the game, so Boston’s win was a much larger upset than it looked on its face. Here were some other betting trends for both teams heading into that match, courtesy of OddsShark.com:

Boston Celtics Trends:
When playing on Wednesday are 7-3
Before playing Atlanta are 7-3
After playing Philadelphia are 6-4
After a win are 7-3

 

Indiana Pacers Trends:
When playing on Wednesday are 7-3
Before playing Orlando are 6-4
After playing Chicago are 3-7
After a win are 8-2

 

A few Celtics at Pacers trends to consider:
Boston is 4-1 SU in its last 5 games
The total has gone OVER in 4 of Boston’s last 5 games on the road
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Boston’s last 5 games when playing Indiana
Boston is 14-5 SU in its last 19 games when playing Indiana
Indiana is 7-1 SU in its last 8 games
Indiana is 20-3 SU in its last 23 games at home
The total has gone OVER in 4 of Indiana’s last 5 games at home
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Indiana’s last 5 games when playing Boston

The Celtics were also two-point underdogs against the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night, but won 107-102 on their home floor. Here were some other betting trends for both teams from OddsShark:

Boston Celtics Trends:
When playing on Tuesday are 5-5
Before playing Atlanta are 7-3
After playing Atlanta are 8-2
After a win are 6-4

Atlanta Hawks Trends:
When playing on Tuesday are 4-6
Before playing Boston are 6-4
After playing Boston are 3-7
After a loss are 7-3

A few Celtics at Hawks trends to consider:
Boston is 5-1 SU in its last 6 games
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Boston’s last 6 games when playing on the road against Atlanta
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Boston’s last 7 games on the road
Boston is 5-2 SU in its last 7 games when playing Atlanta
The total has gone OVER in 10 of Atlanta’s last 12 games
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Atlanta’s last 6 games when playing at home against Boston
The total has gone OVER in 9 of Atlanta’s last 11 games at home
Atlanta is 14-5 SU in its last 19 games at home

Boston’s stellar run this week was marred somewhat by a 91-79 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday afternoon, but they have more than proved themselves against who it counts: the teams in the Eastern Conference that they’re competing with for a better playoff seeding.