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Knicks vs. Celtics Free NBA Game 1 Pick | Gambling Preview

Our experts weigh in with this week’s best Game 1 NBA Playoff picks for gambling on all the action. Sunday on the hardwood we get the New York Knicks vs. Boston Celtics…

NBA Playoffs Betting – Sunday Picks – New York Knicks vs Boston Celtics

Before nba betting fans turn their attention to more basketball betting events this week, we have some more good NBA Playoff gambling matchups to pick on tap, and our man Lawrence weighs in with his picks for game 1 of the Knicks vs. Celtics. It’s time for our weekly Playoff hoops picks for NBA gambling action.

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EASTERN CONFERENCE – KNICKS vs. CELTICS
Time: Sunday 7 p.m. EST
Venue: TD Garden, Boston
Spread: Boston -6
Over/Under: 197.5

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If you’re on the good side of 40 you don’t remember when the Knicks and Celtics in the playoffs was as good as the NBA had to offer. New York’s 1973 NBA championship team (Jerry Lucas, Earl Monroe, Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, Dick Barnett, Dave DeBusschere) was as superb a passing team as may have ever played the game, and that year NY beat John Havlicek and Boston in an epic 7-game Eastern Conference finals before taking out the Lakers in 5 in the Finals.

The Knicks-Celtics rivalry has been dormant since those days, and over the years the NBA has undergone drastic changes. Everything – the way the game is officiated, coached and marketed – is now geared to superstars, and no team exemplifies those changes more than today’s Knicks.

The Knicks make no bones about the fact that they are following the Miami model – stockpile as many superstars as possible and make it impossible for opponents to cover you. Motion offenses with everyone touching the ball may have worked for the 1973 Knicks, but that won’t fly with the Carmelo Anthonys and Amare Stoudemires of today’s NBA.

Veteran PG Chauncey Billups, whose job it is to get the ball to Anthony and Stoudemire, would probably have fit in perfectly with those old Knicks, and he might be the key player in the only Eastern Conference series which might have some suspense to it. Sports Betting at Sportsbook.com

Billups always seems to play well against the Celtics, whose perimeter defense has struggled in the latter part of the season.

NBA Trends:

NY are 6-2 ATS in their last 8 Sun. games.
NY are 7-3 ATS in their last 10 vs. NBA Atlantic.
BOS are 13-4 ATS in their last 17 Sun. games.
Under is 16-5-1 in BOS last 22 overall.
Under is 6-2 in BOS last 8 home games.
NY are 2-6-1 ATS in the last 9 meetings in Boston.
NY are 9-19-1 ATS in the last 29 meetings.

The pick: Odds on this game may not be posted until a determination is made about the availability of Boston’s Shaquille O’Neal, and that might be a game-time decision.

With Shaq, Boston 97-89 seems about right. Without him, Celtics 95-91. (AS of presstime odds weren’t posted – they’ve since been added to this piece)

Lawrence Paul is a regular contributor to the Cappers Picks Blog, and is a free-lance gambling expert from Massachusetts.

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By Lawrence Paul

Lawrence Paul is back in the saddle as a regular contributor to the Cappers Picks Blog. He's got an AMAZING knack for predicting when a team will have a letdown! Stick with our resident gambling experts sports betting tips all season long!