The Red Hot Boston Celtics are Running Away With it. And What’s Happening in the Western Conference?
What We’ve Learned
The Boston Celtics seem to be the Eastern Conference leaders by no surprise. We saw them the previous season dethrone the Heat’s Jimmy Butler in the Heat’s arena and even give the once-in-a-lifetime Golden State Warriors a tough time winning their Finals. And while you could say they came up short last year, they want all the smoke now and are proving it night in and night out.
Track Record
With impressive wins against the Hawks, Nuggets, Grizzlies, Heat, and 76ers, they are far from putting up a shabby resume making them the easiest nightly money line bet to take in the Eastern Conference.
How have their stars been performing you ask? Jayson Tatum, their Duke University prodigy and golden child is averaging over 30 points and 7 rebounds, helping you hit your player props.
Others such as Jaylen Brown are also contributing numbers of over 25 points and 7 rebounds as well. When you have two guys on the court basically scoring around 30 points a game, night in and out, it makes it very tough for opposers to compete.
Hot & Unnoticed
Besides that, one of my favorite pickups of the year for them, besides their new coach which will talk about, is Malcolm Brogdon. The guy that everyone really didn’t pay attention to in Indiana last year after his come-up in Milwaukee is getting significant minutes off the bench for this squad and is contributing big-time.
While they obviously have a very good guard in Marcus Smart, his strength more relies on the defensive side, while Brogdon gives you a refreshing offensive bolster when you really need it with that secondary Celtics unit. A sneaky guy to watch player props for.
Celtic DNA
The selective pairing and properly assigned matchups have to go to a true tough nose, a guy named Joe Mazzulla. Amid the Celtics having to temporarily part ways with their previous head coach due to offseason rumors of him having affairs with one of the Boston staff members, Joe has really stepped up and continued that grit that we all know and expect from this team.
From a guy that wasn’t the best at handling his emotions or adversity throughout college, Joe is a big believer in mental performance and understands you not only have to get stronger in the physical gym but in the mental gym.
Boston’s Secret Formula
Joe Mazzulla is a perfect mix of GM Brad Stevens and former head coach Ime Udoka. He preaches a growth mentality and has a disciplinary mindset ignited through growth that sets up a perfect recipe to now exemplify the Celtics continued success.
This team is structured and built for a potential championship, and with the current state of the Golden State Warriors, it’s looking like someone else in that Conference is going to have to get in the way if they want to stop this Boston Celtic determined to run.
The Boston Celtics Elite at Basketball, Not the Spread
And while this news is very much exciting, it doesn’t help improve the season’s spread. Good teams are given worse covers ideally, and Boston has went only 9-7 this season in that department besides their leading record.
Western Conference Woes
Surely the Lakers, Warriors, Mavericks, and Suns lead the Western Conference, right? Wrong! Only one of those teams is contending and that is the Chris Paul-less Suns. Lakers are nowhere to be found and the Warriors and Mavericks are currently slumping down the way having average records even with breakthrough seasons from their leaders in Stephen Curry and Luka Doncic.
So who leads the way you ask? The Utah Jazz. The Trail Blazers. The Nuggets. And the most shocking one, the Sacramento Kings. The Kings are back baby!
Sacramento a Usual Underdog, Now a Betting Lock?
A team that was probably predicted to have one of the worst seasons is really showing out in the current 5th seed only 3 games back from first.
With their acquisitions of Monk, Sabonis, Huerter, Mitchell, and already a proven leader and floor general in De’Aaron Fox, this Mike Brown-led crew is finding a way to soar threes from deep and unexpectedly win games as their top in the NBA in points per game.
Jazz are the Kings of NBA and the Spread
Wow! The same with the Utah Jazz. A team that got rid of their two marquee playmakers being the best in the West? How does that make any sense? They had just gotten rid of Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert.
How are they this good? Well, it may have been in the master plan. They acquired a shooting big in Lauri Markkanen and decided to stay within budget and allow guards Darius Garland and Jordan Clarkson to take over previously Mitchell’s massive responsibility.
Well, the plans have worked so far as their fourth in points per game in this basketball league. This is a breath of fresh air for basketball. The new competition is flat-out fun!
The opposite has correlated with the spread for these newcomer leaders above. The Utah Jazz have an equal record at the spread as their regular record. And also teams like Sacramento as mentioned is an outstanding 11-4 at the spread even better than their current record.
What’s to be Learned Betting Forward
With this in mind, it’s ideally wiser with this current trend to lean towards taking spreads of the younger Western Conference crews majorly for now in the future than a proven elite Eastern giant like Boston.
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