Boston Celtics vs Miami Heat Prediction & Betting Tips - NBA

Prediction published on 17/05/2023, 08:04  by Joseph King | Modified on 17/05/2023 at 08:08 in NBA Predictions

The Boston Celtics host the Miami Heat for game one of the Eastern Conference Finals in the 2023 NBA Playoffs. It’s the third time these two teams have met at this stage in the playoffs in the last four seasons. The Celtics hold the most recent bragging rights after eliminating the Heat in a seven-game slugfest last year to advance to the NBA Finals. They come into this series as the overwhelming favorites with the bookmakers clearly not rating the number eight seed Miami’s chances against the number two seed Boston. The Celtics come in as 1.20 favorites to advance to a second consecutive trip to the NBA Finals while the Heat hold a frankly ridiculous price of 5.00 to advance. The winner of this series will face off with either the Denver Nuggets or the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals. 

Boston will have to cope with a short turnaround after being taken to seven games by the 76ers in the previous round. Historically, it has been profitable to fade a team coming off a game seven win in the first game of the next series. It’s understandable as to why: game sevens are emotion-filled, often extremely hard fought and physical games. They are enough to drain a team in ways that a normal regular season game would not. To make matters worse, they are playing against a team that relishes the nitty-gritty and physical aspect of the game.

The Heat have built a reputation as a hard-working, defense-minded team over the past few seasons. This reputation has been compounded with the arrival of Jimmy Butler in 2019 who personifies Miami’s hard-nosed approach to the game. For this reason, it’s extremely difficult to beat this team by a large margin. Miami has a knack for keeping games close, a trend which has become abundantly clear in these playoffs.