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NBA: Boston Celtics vs Toronto Raptors Betting Preview



Tonight we have a HUGE game between two teams who could meet in the ECF later this season as the up and down but dangerous Boston Celtics host the 1st seeded Toronto Raptors!


Totals


Boston Celtics are one of the best in covered their total point overs at Home this season with a 60% of covered overs (12-8) this season at Home which is 6th best in the NBA! The pre-game total for tonight’s game is 223.5 and the closest that Boston were to that pre-game at Home this season was against the 76ers and the Hawks where pre-game point total was 222.5. Both ended up being overs as they Beat Philly 121-114 (235 pts) and Atlanta 129-108 (237 pts).


Toronto Raptors on the road this season also have more overs than unders covered. Raptors have covered 56.5% of their total point overs this season playing on the road (13-10). The closest that Toronto have been to tonight’s 223.5 pts pre-game total points was against the Bucks where the pre-game total was 224.5 point and it ended up being an Over as Toronto won 123-116 (239 pts).






Handicaps


Boston Celtics have an incredible percentage of covered Handicaps at Home. They have a 70% Handicaps covered at Home this season (14-6)! Celtics have been able to protect their home court and have put together some very dominant wins. Celtics are 2.5 pt favourites tonight and the most similar handicaps that they’ve had to that this season at Home was against Milwaukee (actually the same 2.5) and they covered it with a 117-113 win, they were also 2.0 pt favourites against Toronto and won 123-116 and 3 pt favourites against the Pelicans which they also covered with a 113-100 win so Boston are pretty good at covering handicaps as small favourites at Home this season.


Despite being the 1st seeded Eastern team, the Raptors have surprisingly have a negative percentage of Handicaps covered playing on the road this season at 43.5% (10-13) and especially most recently they’ve been awful at it as they’ve only covered 1 of their last 8 Handicaps on the road and that’s because they’ve struggled to really win games on the Road. The closest that Toronto have been to being 2.5 point underdogs was against the Wizards (2.5) which they covered by winning 117-113. They were 2 pt underdogs against Boston which they didn’t cover in a 123-116 loss, 2 pt underdogs in Denver which they also failed to cover losing 95-86 and 3 pt underdogs against the Spurs which they AGAIN failed to cover losing 125-107 so Toronto have in general just been bad at covering handicaps, especially when they’re tipped as small underdogs.


Recent H2H in Boston


Boston have been able to protect their home court against the Raptors at Home in recent meetings. Boston have beaten Toronto 4 straight times (3-0 against them since the start of last season at Home). Celtics covered the Handicap in 3 of those 4 Games and the Over/Under stats are 2-2 in these 4 meetings.


The last meeting in Boston was earlier this season and Celtics defeated the Raptors 123-116 covering a pre-game -2 handicap and a pre-game 214.5 point total. The game did go to overtime however which helped to cover the Handicap and the Over.


During that last meeting, the highest that the Celtics were tipped to win LIVE was 6.5 points which they managed to cover basically covering all given handicaps throughout the game and the highest that the Raptors handicap got was -7.5 points which they of course failed to cover by a large margin.


The highest total points that were given LIVE was 224.5 and the lowest was 209.5 during their last meeting in Boston. Even the highest total got covered due to there being an Overtime.


Injury News


 


Celtics: Aron Baynes continues to be out for Boston, however Marcus Smart is expected to play and Kyrie Irving is GOOD to go after missing the last game against Brooklyn.


Raptors: Jonas Valanciunas continues to be out with a long term injury from which he already missed a month. OG Anunoby is also out which lessens Toronto’s bench depth. CJ Miles is questionable and Fred VanVleet is good to go after missing his last game.


 


Match Start – 17th January 2019 – 1am UK Time

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