NBA Basketball: Phoenix Suns at Boston Celtics

Added on Mar 02, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

Non conference NBA action is on tap for Wednesday as the Phoenix Suns travel to the TD BankNorth Garden to take on the Boston Celtics. The Suns are one of the teams in the middle of the pack logjam out West but are currently on the outside looking in for postseason play. Boston is currently 1 game ahead of the Miami Heat for the best record in the East.

Phoenix Suns at Boston Celtics
March 2, 2011 4:05 PM Pacific

The Celtics aren’t a great pointspread team since they have a tendency to just enough to win games and don’t regularly cover margins. They’ll ‘pick their spots’ for great performances but are a famously workmanlike team during the regular season that tries to keep as much in reserve as possible for the playoffs. This is a likely spot for that sort of effort against a Phoenix Suns side that is playing good basketball but still isn’t on the ‘radar screen’ of the general public. Boston is 20-26 ATS as a favorite and this is a particularly bad pointspread category for them–as a home favorite of 6′ to 9 points they’re 11-3 SU but only 4-9 against the spread. They’re also 12-15 ATS on their home floor suggesting that the TD BankNorth Garden is an arena where visiting teams can compete.

Phoenix is pretty much a break even ATS team in most categories YTD but have been playing very solid basketball of late–they’re 10-5 SU in their last 15 games and are currently 1 game back of 8th place Portland and Memphis and 2 games back of 6th place New Orleans in the Western Conference playoff race. They’ve won 4 straight games going 3-1 ATS and that includes the first three games of their current road trip. The Celtics don’t really have a ‘big’ game on the schedule until March 11 at resurgent Philadelphia, so this looks like a string where they’ll just do what is necessary to pull out victories over opponents like Golden State, Milwaukee and the LA Clippers. That mentality might not work against Phoenix, however, and we expect the Suns to be in this game throughout with the upset outright victory a distinct possibility.

Bet Phoenix Suns +6′ over Boston Celtics