NBA: Golden State Warriors vs Boston Celtics Betting Preview

Golden State Warriors are back at Oracle and they will host one of the most disappointing teams right now in the NBA, the Boston Celtics in what prior to the season was considered as the favoured Finals match up which doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.

Golden State Warriors

Warriors have not played that well recently going 3-4 in their last 7, however they are coming off a good win in Philadelphia where they erased a 16 point deficit to win 120-117 despite Klay Thompson being out who is questionable to play here again. Warriors have had players in and out of the line-up whether Cousins has missed a game, KD missed a game and Klay missed a game thus kind of making them drop off a little in the past 2 weeks. Despite their recent struggled, Warriors have still been able to maintain a 1^st seed at a 44-19 record being 2 games above Denver who themselves have struggled lately which kept Warriors firmly on top. There really isn’t much to add that we don’t know about Golden State except the fact that they’ve weirdly struggled against elite teams at Oracle for some reason losing to Toronto, Philadelphia, Houston twice, Milwaukee, OKC in front of their own fans already and that is a concern for tonight for some reason Golden State have not been turning up for these big games at home all season long. Lack of bench depth is another concern given that Looney is out, Iguodala is questionable and the Warriors are already short when it comes to their bench. Curry, KD and Boogie will all have to go off again offensively to win if Klay doesn’t play. Warriors defeated the Celtics in Boston 115-111 in what was a very entertaining, close game which Golden State ended up closing out in the crunch time.

Injury Report

Klay Thompson – Questionable

Andre Iguodala – Questionable

Alfonzo McKinnie – Questionable

Damian Jones – OUT

Kevon Looney – OUT

Boston Celtics

It’s been a nightmare for Boston lately, their performances have been awful, they’ve been hearing boos multiple times in some of their home games and understandably so as the fans have been completely let down especially with their play post all star break in which they’re 1-5 and have fallen to a 38-26 record which is the 5^th seed in the East. Boston still haven’t been able to figure out their chemistry, Kyrie Irving seems to be disengaged from the team although he’s playing well it’s definitely not helping the team chemistry the fact that he’s not leading by example. The young players like Tatum and Brown are not living up to the hype either and Gordon Hayward STILL is struggling from time to time with his inconsistent play (4.4 ppg since all star break is very bad). Boston have been a BAD team on the road at 14-16 which in the East is a pretty bad record for a team that has as much talent as the Celtics, they’ve absolutely sucked against top teams on the road their only top wins on the road was in Oklahoma and Philadelphia, otherwise they’ve not been able to win in Toronto, Milwaukee, Denver, Houston, Indiana, Portland etc and that just shows that Boston are not quite the team we expected them to be prior to the season. For the Celtics right, given how bad they look any win is important and to get one in Golden State could be HUGE, but if they show up like they’ve done in the past 6 games then they’ll get blown out of the building. Health wise there are no issues with the Celtics as they’re at full strength. Expect Kyrie Irving to have a big night as he normally seems to do against the Warriors 

Injury Report

No Injuries, everyone are available.

Betting Stats

Totals

Warriors have covered 45.2% of their total point overs at home this season (14-17). Total for this game is given at 230.5 points, a total that Golden State have had once at home before against the Knicks which resulted with an under as they won the game 122-95. They also had a very similar 231 point total against San Antonio which ended with an over in a 141-102 win for the Warriors.

Celtics have covered 50% of their road total point overs this season (15-15). The Celtics have not had a 230.5 point total on the road before and in fact it’s the highest they’ve had all season tonight. The closest that they’ve had to a 230.5 point total was a 227.5 point total in Milwaukee which ended with an under as Boston lost 98-97. 8 of last 9 Celtics road games have had an Under.

 

Handicaps

Warriors have covered 35.5% of their Handicaps at the Oracle this season which is one of the worst percentages in the NBA for a home team. Warriors are 8 point favourites for this game. They have had a -8 Handicap at home once before against Utah which they didn’t cover despite winning 115-107. They’ve also had a very close -8.5 Handicap against Houston also failing to cover losing 134-135 and a -7.5 Handicap against Portland, Brooklyn and Toronto covering just the one against Brooklyn in a 116-100 win while losing 93-113 to Toronto and 109-110 to Portland.

Celtics have only covered 40% of their road Handicaps this season (12-18). +8 Handicap is their largest underdog Handicap all season on the road. The closest that they’ve had to a +8 Handicap was a +7 Handicap in Philadelphia which they did manage to cover winning the game 112-109.

Recent H2H in Golden State

Recently, the meetings between these clubs have been very close in Golden State, in fact 4 of the last 5 were decided by 4 points or less with Warriors winning 3 and Celtics winning 2 of those! Boston have always seem to been able to give the Warriors a tough game at Oracle.

Warriors beat the Celtics 109-105 last time that they met at Oracle last season as Steph Curry went off for 49 points. Celtics covered a +11 Handicap in that game while total 218.5 points resulted with an Under as teams totalled 214 points.

TIP OFF – 6^th March 2019 – 3:30am UK Time