MIAMI @ BOSTON (BOS -14, 210)
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HEAT VS. CELTICS 4/21/24
When the eighth-seeded Miami Heat travel to face the top-seeded Boston Celtics today to begin their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series, they will be in a familiar place. Miami fought its way to the NBA Finals last season as the eighth seed in the East. Before falling to the Denver Nuggets in the NBA Finals, the Heat won a seven-game series against Boston in the conference finals.
Boston had the best record in the NBA with 64 wins in the regular season. The Celtics do not want to let what happened last year happen again.
After losing to the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday, Miami defeated the Chicago Bulls 112-91 on Friday night in a play-in tournament elimination game. In the victory, Tyler Herro racked up 24 points, 10 rebounds, and 9 assists. Bam Adebayo finished with 13 points, Kevin Love scored 16, and Jaime Jaquez added 21 more.
Jimmy Butler, who suffered an MCL injury on Wednesday night, is expected to miss several weeks of action and will not play for the Heat. During the regular season, Butler averaged 20.8 points per game. Terry Rozier will miss the first game of the series for Miami as well. Rozier's neck injury has kept him off the court since April 7.
Against the Heat in the regular season, the Celtics went 3-0. Boston won 119-111 at home on October 27, 143-110 at Miami on January 25, and 110-106 at Miami on February 11.
Last season, Miami defeated Boston in the first three games of their playoff series. The Heat prevailed in Game 7 on the road after the Celtics won the following three games to tie the series. This season, Boston is 37-4 at home.
The Heat and Celtics are meeting in the playoffs for the seventh time. In the six prior meetings, Miami prevailed four times. Miami is 8-4 SU in its last 12 games and 6-2 ATS in their last eight. In addition to winning the three games this season against Miami, Boston is 6-1 SU in the last seven meetings. The Heat has done well against the number in games with Boston, going 5-1 ATS in the last six.
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FREE PICK: BAM ADEBAYO OVER 21.5 PTS + ASTS
Bam scored 19 or more points in all three games against the Celtics this season. He had 27 in the first meeting and with Jimmy Butler out of the lineup, Bam should have more opportunities to hit this prop. He’ll also contribute feeding cutters to the basket and should hit at least his season average of 3.9 assists. Bam averages 19.3 points per game and if he just hits his averages, he goes Over this prop.
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