The Boston Celtics enter the holiday season with the best record (21-6) and win percentage (.778) in the NBA, having won eight of the last 10 games and sitting a game ahead of Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference standings.
The Joe Mazzulla-coached team is coming off a 25-point shellacking of a talented Sacramento team on Wednesday in the final tune-up before the Celtics play two games in L.A. over Christmas weekend.
Boston finds itself on a familiar pedestal come Christmas Day, as it will play the L.A. Lakers at 5 p.m. on ABC in the team’s 14th Dec. 25 game since 2000. It will give Massachusetts sports betting enthusiasts one more reason to be thankful this holiday. BetMassachusetts.com took a look at how the Celtics have fared in their previous 13 Christmas Day games.
Celtics on Christmas Day Since 2000
The Celtics championship odds are currently the best in the NBA at +350. Phoenix is second at +400.
Celtics Have Mixed Returns on Christmas
The Celtics have had mixed success on Dec. 25 recently, going 6-7, including last year’s 139-118 rout of Milwaukee at TD Garden.
The Celtics’ largest margin of victory in a Christmas Day game in their most-recent 13-game stretch was that 21-point margin over Milwaukee. Their 16-point victory over Toronto in 2019 was the next closest.
The largest defeats Boston has suffered on Dec. 25 this century came in 2002, when it lost by 36 points (117-81) to the New Jersey Nets. In 13 Christmas contests since 2002, the Celtics have averaged 100 points per game while allowing 105.4 points.
While no lines have been released yet for this year’s Celtics-Lakers Christmas game — you can count on a few Massachusetts betting promos as tipoff approaches and the lines are set — ESPN Analytics currently gives Boston a 64.7% chance of beating L.A. on Dec. 25.
