Fittingly enough, this year’s battle for the Eastern Conference title features the previous two champions — the Boston Celtics won the conference in 2008 and the Orlando Magic did the same last year.
The conference final got underway on Sunday with the Boston Celtics drawing first blood in a 92-88 victory — the Celtics also covered as a 6.5-point road underdog in the process.
Unlike the 2008 championship season, when the Celtics were the toast of the entire Eastern Conference and the best team in the entire association during the regular season, the 2010 Celtics didn’t fare so well making it into the postseason dance as the East’s fourth seed.
Fortunately for Boston Celtic bettors, the team is performing better in the playoffs.
“I honestly say we lost ourselves” explained Boston bench boss Doc Rivers to the AP
“I think we've found ourselves again.”
The two teams will go at it again on Tuesday in Game 2 and the Orlando Magic are once again home favorites. Online sportsbooks have them at -7.5 with the Total at 187.5.
Can Boston go back to the Garden with a 2-0 series lead?
The Celtics have done well enough in their last nine road games overall, going 6-3 both straight up and against the spread and as well, there have been 6 Overs and 3 Unders in that same time as well.
In Boston and Orlando’s last 15 tilts, there have been 3 Overs and 12 Unders.
The jury is out in the Celtics’ last eight visits to the Magic Kingdom when it comes to straight up results as Boston is only 4-4 SU.
However, when it comes to betting against the line, the Celtics have been much more solid, going 6-2 ATS.
As mentioned earlier, the Under has been prevalent in the two teams’ last 15 overall meetings and the story is the same in the last 13 times the Celtics have played at the Amway Arena.
Bettors who’ve played the Under during that time have benefited 10 out of 13 times.
The Under has also come up more times than not in the two teams’ last eight meetings in the month of May as there have been only 2 Overs and 6 Unders.
In the last seven games where the Boston Celtics have been underdogs of 8-points or less, they have gone 5-2 straight up and against the spread.
On the other hand, the Orlando Magic have been dominant in their last 20 games when favored by 8-points or less, going 17-3 SU and 14-4-2 ATS and in their last 12 in that situation, the Magic are 11-1 SU and 10-1-1 ATS.
Talking with SPORTSBETTING.com, they are reporting 70% of the action on this one so far has come in on the Magic.
You can check all the updated NBA odds
Bovada Sportsbook •
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