Filip Tomic
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A couple of in-form teams collide tonight at TD Garden, as the Boston Celtics host the Oklahoma City Thunder. Catch the game live on NBA TV from 7:30 pm ET on NBA TV. I have prepared a Same Game Parlay to make things a little more interesting.
Don’t forget to check out our NBA predictions for picks on the side and total for tonight’s 7-game slate.
Let’s get into the Thunder vs Celtics match-up now.
Oklahoma City Thunder -3.5 alternate spread (+650)
Jaylen Brown Over 25.5 points (-111)
Parlay odds: +1756
Oklahoma City Thunder -3.5 alternate spread (+650)
I know what you’re thinking: “there’s no way the Thunder can end the Celtics’ 6-game winning streak.” But after seeing OKC drop 145 and 132 points in their last 2 games, are we sure that’s not possible? All win streaks have to come to an end at some point and when you’re producing as many points as the Thunder are right now, you are always within a chance of winning games. Nobody in the NBA has scored as many points over the last 3 games – OKC is averaging a mind boggling 136.3 during that stretch and the next closest team is actually the Celtics who are putting up 125.3 per game.
Despite the winning streak, Boston isn’t without flaws of their own. They only have the 22nd best defensive rating in the NBA, they are only 12th in defensive rebounding percentage and they don’t have much going on as far as offensive rebounding goes ranking 28th in that category. Against the Thunder at home they’ve covered the spread in just 2 of the last 9 meetings, and are outscoring them by just 4.7 points over the last 10 meetings overall. I know it’s a long shot, but crazier things have happened, let’s back the Thunder to pull of the upset here.
Monday’s NBA parlay has +590 odds!
Jaylen Brown Over 25.5 points (-111)
Brown has performed really well against the Thunder in the last 3 meetings averaging 29.7 points per game. He’s also posted shooting splits of 47-34-84 during that run, which is quite good for his position. The three-ball is also falling for him at 3 per game in those 3 meetings, which is just around what he’s averaging this season. He matches up pretty well against Lu Dort who is just an average defender in my opinion. Cam Reddish just dropped 26 on Dort last night at Madison Square Garden, I think we can all agree that Brown is at least a couple of levels above Reddish offensively. OKC is also fairly average at defending the three ball – they rank only 16th in the NBA in opponent three-point percentage allowing 35.7% of shots per game. That number has jumped up to 39.2% over their last 3 games, so the Celtics will let it fly tonight. I’m counting on Brown to have a big game in a losing effort here.
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