Boston Celtics vs Orlando Magic NBA Lines Preview
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Celtics at Magic NBA Lines
Date/Time: Saturday, December 25, 2:30 PM ET
Venue: Amway Center, Orlando, FL
Broadcast: ABC
Boston Celtics vs. Orlando Magic Betting Lines
Spread: Magic -2
Over/Under: 191.5
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Boston Celtics vs. Orlando Magic Preview
The Magic (17-12) pulled off some huge deals last week with the main reason of keeping up with teams like the Celtics (23-4), who they will face on Christmas Day. At time of writing there are no lines for this HUGE game.
While the Magic brought in Gilbert Arenas and Jason Richardson and brought back Hedu Turkoglu they had not won with the new guys in the lineup and they had dropped 8 of 9 games. However, they finally won with their new crew on Thursday night and did so in style killing the Spurs, which snapped San Antonio’s 10-game winning streak. On Christmas they get a present of playing the red-hot Celtics, who have the best record in the Eastern Conference and have won 14 straight. Can the Magic snap 2-long winning streaks in a row?
The Celtics are getting it done on both sides of the court, as they have the league’s 2nd ranked defense and 11th ranked offense. The old guys of Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and even Shaq, look like they have found the fountain of youth and Boston is playing great team basketball.
In their last games the Magic crushed the San Antonio Spurs 123-101 on Thursday night and the Celtics beat the Philadelphia 76ers 84-80 on Wednesday night.
The Magic got out ran in the win over San Antonio with a season-high 30 fast break points and that will be hard to do against a Celtics’ squad that likes the slow the pace. They will also have a hard time duplicating their 59% shooting from the floor like they did against San Antonio.
Dwight Howard had another monster game on Thursday going for 29 points and grabbing 14 boards. Howard and his dominance was probably the main reason that Boston brought in Shaquille O’Neal. The Diesel has played well this season averaging 11.3 ppg and 6.5 boards per game. Shaq will not be pushed around and this game may show if Boston made a good move, as if he can somewhat contain Howard the Celtics will be in good shape.
One big thing the Magic have going for them is they will likely not have to face PG Rajon Rondo (11.2 ppg), who leads the NBA in assists per game. The Celtics may really miss him, as he is great getting into the lane and kicking out, but even with him out Boston has yet to lose. Nate Robinson will be counted on to man the point tonight and he has to play well.
Gilbert Arenas is known as a scorer, but one of the main reasons the Magic schooled the Spurs is Agent-0 had 9 assists to go along with his 14 points. The Magic have the scorers with Howard, Arenas, Richardson, Jameer Nelson, and Turkoglu, but the Magic only rank 27th in the league in assists. Arenas and Nelson (7 assists per game) will have to spread the wealth in this game and pass well against the Celtics and their stingy D.
Richardson and Arenas will also be counted on to play good defense on Paul Pierce (18.2 ppg) and Ray Allen (17.2 ppg) and especially keep Allen, who is hitting on 42.3% on his 3-pointers, from bombing away from deep.
The Celtics won the game, but they have to play better than they did in their last game against the lowly 76ers when they only shot 38.8% from the floor. If they shoot the rock like that again against the Magic they will be a Christmas turkey.
No Rondo, the game is in the Sunshine State, and the Magic are riding high after snapping the Spurs winning streak. That all does not matter, as Shaq will be his old self and play well against Howard and the Celtics will play great D and win a defensive game.
Betting Trends
Boston is 9-3 ATS in their last 12 road games and Orlando is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 home games and 2-8 ATS in their last 10 games.
Even though the Spurs game went over in the last 4 games the Magic have played against teams in the Eastern Conference the total has gone Under every time.
Pick: Celtics and the Under
