The Boston Celtics have a shot at closing out the teamâs opening round series against the pesky Miami Heat at TD Garden on Wednesday evening, fresh off consecutive double-digit victories in South Florida.
The Commonwealthâs lone professional basketball franchise got to their series advantage by routing the Heat by a combined margin of 54 points in Games 1, 3 and 4 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals matchup, with superstar forward Jayson Tatum leading the team in scoring (at 23.3 points per game), while guards Jaylen Brown (22.3 PPG) and Derrick White (21.8 PPG) are also averaging at least 20 points per contest against Miami.
Looking forward to tonightâs Game 5, Boston enters gameday as a 14-point favorite on BetMGM Massachusetts.
Using Sports-Reference.com, BetMassachusetts wanted to see how often an NBA team wins a playoff series when theyâre up 3-1. Using the results of 3-1 teams in the first round of the past 5 years of playoffs, we found that only 1 team out of 22 teams ended up losing when up 3-1 initially.
Past 5 Seasons: NBA Teams Up 3-1 In First Round Series
Won Series | Lost Series |
95.5% | 4.5% |
Given the one sided nature of 3-1 series in NBA history, with the Denver Nuggets doing so twice against the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers in the 2020 playoffs, itâs a safe bet to assume that the Câs will move on to play either the Cleveland Cavaliers or Orlando Magic in the conference semifinals.
One way or another, Joe Mazzullaâs team will look to move on when the Celtics and Heat meet up in Downtown Boston on Wednesday night, as the Bay State squad looks to advance past the opening round of the postseason for the seventh time in the last eight years.
Given the fact that the franchiseâs lone first round folly came in 2021, when Boston fell to Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets in five games after going 36-36 in the COVID-shortened regular season, itâs worth giving Mazzulla and company the benefit of the doubt that theyâll take care of business at home tonight, setting up a battle in the second round against an upstart franchise in the Cavaliers or Magic.
Of the last 15 league winners, the Celticsâ .790 win percentage in the regular season would easily clear the average among the group (.729) while Bostonâs 120.6 PPG are more than 10 points more than the average that NBA champs have put up since 2010-11 (109.3).
All of that is among the reasons why Boston has commanding championship odds on MA betting apps as the first round of the postseason rolls along.
USA Today photo by David Butler.
