For just the second time this season, the Celtics (30-18) are home underdogs heading into Saturday night's showdown with the Golden State Warriors (34-14). The Celtics are two-point underdogs on the NBA odds versus the Warriors at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com, with both teams sporting winning streaks.
Golden State has won a season-high nine games in a row after topping the Washington Wizards 126-118 on Thursday behind 38 points from Stephen Curry. However, the Warriors fell just short of covering the number as 9.5-point road favorites after going 5-2-1 against the spread in the previous eight games of their winning streak, according to the OddsShark NBA Database. Regardless, they have still won their last five games by an average of 16.6 points.
Meanwhile, Boston has put together a five-game winning streak following a disappointing three-game skid that included losses to the Brooklyn Nets and Orlando Magic. Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving sat out Wednesday's 123-103 rout of the Cleveland Cavaliers with the flu after averaging nearly 31 points in their previous four games, but Terry Rozier filled in nicely for Irving by scoring a game-high 26 points as Boston covered as a 15-point home favorite.
The only other time the Celtics have been underdogs at TD Garden this season came back on Dec. 21 when they lost 120-107 to the Milwaukee Bucks, who closed as 1.5-point road favorites at sports betting sites. In that setback against the Bucks, Irving, Rozier and Marcus Smart combined to shoot 10-of-35 from the field (28.6 percent), including 1-of-10 from three-point range.
Before that though, Boston went 10-1 straight up and 11-0 ATS in its previous 11 games as a home underdog. That includes a 92-88 upset win over Golden State as a seven-point home dog on November 16, 2017.
The Warriors have struggled versus the Celtics overall the past few seasons as well, going 2-3 SU and 1-4 ATS in the past five meetings since a five-game series winning streak between 2014 and 2015. In addition, Boston is an impressive 8-2-1 ATS despite going 4-7 SU in the last 11 head-to-head matchups. Golden State won the most recent game between them one year ago, picking up a 109-105 victory but failing to cover as a 10.5-point home favorite.
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