With a sluggish start to the season seemingly behind them, the Boston Celtics will get back on the hardwood on Saturday on the road against the Indiana Pacers with a chance for a fourth payout in five games on the NBA betting lines at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Boston ran its straight-up winning streak to four games on Thursday with a 117-113 victory at home against the Milwaukee Bucks as 2.5-point favorites, pushing them to 3-1 against the spread in their four most recent outings since turning in a 1-3 ATS start to the campaign.
Kyrie Irving led the way for the Celtics in Thursday's win with 28 points, while Gordon Hayward and Al Horford picked up 18 points apiece in the contest, and Marcus Morris added 17 points off the bench. Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo poured in a game-high 33 points.
The Celtics began the season by splitting their first four games, topping Philadelphia and New York but falling to Toronto and Orlando. Since then though Boston has rattled off consecutive victories against Oklahoma City, Detroit -- both away and home -- and Milwaukee to reassert itself in the Eastern Conference standings.
That run has kept the Celtics as the second favorites at +700 (wager $100 to win $700) on the odds to win the NBA championship, putting them second behind the Golden State Warriors at -165 (wager $165 to win $100) and just ahead of the Toronto Raptors at +900.
Boston is 3-0 SU and 2-1 ATS in its last three road games, according to the OddsShark NBA Database, but its struggles away from home in the playoffs last spring has it just 4-6 SU and 3-7 ATS in its 10 most recent road games. For totals bettors, the UNDER has paid out seven times in Boston's last 10 road games, and five times in its eight games so far this season.
The UNDER has also had the slight edge in the last 10 games between the Celtics and Pacers, with six payouts. Overall Boston is 6-4 SU and 5-5 ATS in its last 10 games against Indiana, going 2-2 SU and 1-3 ATS against the Pacers in their four matchups last season. Indiana edged Boston 99-97 as a 4.5-point road underdog in their last meeting last March.
Boston Celtics
Tipoff for Saturday night's game is set for 7:00pm ET at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The Celtics will then continue a five-game road trip through Denver, Phoenix, Utah, and Portland over the following two weeks before finally returning home to host the Chicago Bulls on November 14.
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