Boston Celtics v Toronto Raptors Betting Tips [9 September 2020]

Boston raced into a 2-0 series lead but were soon pegged back as they lost games three and four to leave the series a tie. The Celtics, however, managed to bounce back on Monday as they ran out comfortable winners to take  3-2 lead and leave the NBA Champions on the ropes. As things stand the Eastern Conference's third seed leads its second best side with either the Miami Heat (3) or the top-seed Milwaukee Bucks (1) to come in the conference final. Boston dominated their opponents on Monday leading the game from start to finish with a 30-point advantage in the second-half. Jaylen Brown led the scoring with 27 points but he was just one of six Boston players to hit double figures for Brad Stevens side. The coach would have been delighted with how his team defended keeping the current champions to 89 points. Boston had the 4th best defence in the regular season with a defensive rating of 104.6 and they managed to keep Toronto to a mere tally. Boston won their first six play-off games and were able to recompose themselves in game five to win by 22 points and now they have the chance to eliminate the defending champions.

Despite two straight wins in games three and four Toronto were caught flat on their feet and would have left the floor after the first quarter totally bemused by what was unfolding. They shot four for 20 in the first quarter and trailed 25-11 hitting just one of nine attempted three pointers. 11 points in the opening quarter is the lowest tally accumulated by any team in the post-season this year and a league-low 35 points at half-time was testament to the brilliant work of Boston's defence. Toronto found themselves 27 points behind at the half, tying the largest ever deficit faced by the reigning champions during the play-offs. Now Nick Nurse and his team are on the verge of being eliminated and they must start like they did when they came out for the second-half on Monday night to stand any chance. 

I fancy Boston to wrap up the series in game six as Toronto looked completely devoid of ideas on Monday. Yes you would expect a reaction from the defending NBA champions but I can't see them overturning a 22-point gap. Either way I'm tipping under 210 points to be scored in this game.