Miami Heat vs Boston Celtics Prediction & Betting Tips - NBA

Prediction published on 23/05/2023, 08:13  by Joseph King | Modified on 23/05/2023 at 08:16 in NBA Predictions

The Boston Celtics face elimination from the 2023 NBA Playoffs when they take on the Miami Heat for game four of the Eastern Conference Finals. The second-seed Celtics find themselves down 3-0 in the series following their 128-102 loss to the eighth-seed Heat in game three. In NBA history, a team down 3-0 in a best of seven series has never comeback to advance in 149 previous attempts. Miami needs just one more win in the next four possible games to move on to an NBA Finals meeting with the Denver Nuggets. Denver just completed a sweep of their own, blasting LeBron James and the LA Lakers 4-0 to advance to their first ever Finals.  

It wasn’t supposed to work out this way for the Boston Celtics. Finalists in the 2021/22 season, Boston were favorites to hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy for most of the year. They would now need to make NBA history if they are to earn a Finals trip to take on the Nuggets. There are a combination of factors which have worked against the Celtics in this series. Most importantly, they simply aren’t hitting their shots. Boston shot 26% in the game three loss and 28% in the game two loss. For the team that jacks up the second most threes in the entire league, a large portion of their success is going to be down to their shots falling. 

Miami, on the other hand, are hitting their shots. The Heat shot a red-hot 54% from downtown in game three, 34% in game two and 52% in game one. If they are able to keep up this kind of shooting while Boston continues to slump, this series will end on Tuesday night. Miami comes into this game having won their last four straight and six of their last seven in the 2023 playoffs. They’ve proven themselves time and again and would make a worthy representative of the Eastern Conference in the Finals.