Orlando at Boston

The Magic are a very good and somewhat underrated team. Despite that fact, I like the Celtics here in game two. The Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers became just the 14th and 15th teams to lose game one at home in the conference semi-final round since 1991. The prior 13 teams came back to win game two 77% of the time. The Celtics are a team of pride and that was witnessed in the second half of game one, coming back from 27 down to nearly win the game. I expect the Celtics to come out with fire in their bellies here as they seem to play best with their backs against the wall when folks are counting them out. Despite the loss of Kevin Garnett, the Celtics are still 12-2 at home in their last 14 games and have been strong off an ATS loss having gone 7-1 ATS after an ATS loss. The Celts are 31-14 ATS the past three seasons revenging a home loss and I expect them to get their revenge here and even up this series. I also like the UNDER in the first-half of this game, as I did last game. Boston is about defense and that led them to the NBA Title a year ago. In a must win situation, I look for them to come out strong and intense on the defensive end to begin this game. Orlando is 27-16 UNDER in the first half this season when coming off a road game and they aer 23-14 UNDER vs. winning teams. They are also 15-6 UNDER vs. teams that shoot 46%+ from the field. Meanwhile Boston is 41-33 UNDER in the first-half as a favorite. The Celtics are 16-6 UNDER in the first-half this season revenging a loss. Boston is also 29-12 UNDER vs. teams that average 100+ ppg and 14-2 UNDER in the first-half vs. teams at .700 or better. Take the Celtics and the first-half UNDER here.