The Celtics and Hornets will square off on Tuesday night in Boston, meeting for the third time since the start of March. Both teams are considered surprises in the Eastern Conference in different ways — the Celtics remained contenders until Jayson Tatum was able to return to the roster, while the Hornets came out of nowhere in January to become one of the best teams in the NBA.
These teams split the last two meetings in March, with the road team winning as the underdog each time out. I think that trend ends on Tuesday and the C’s get a win at TD Garden. Boston has been tremendous of late, winning six of its last seven. This is one of the rare occasions on the season that the Celtics have a clean injury report, and they’re undefeated each time that’s been the case. I think the Celts will be looking for a little bit of revenge from when the Hornets blew them out on their home floor in early March.
This one should also play to the under for a handful of reasons. This game matters for both teams when it comes to the standings, and there’s a familiarity factor. In the two matchups in March, the totals landed 207 and 213, and these teams will only be more familiar this time around. Both squads have been elite on the defensive side of the ball, and tend to slow tempo. Look for another low scoring game.
I’ll also back Tatum to clean the glass in this one, which has been the case since his return from injury. He’s averaging over 10 boards per game, including 14 per game in the month of April. Tatum has cleared eight rebounds in 10 of his 14 games since returning.
Using the eight rebound number on Tatum, along with Celtics moneyline and an under on an alternate total that we moved up, we can get betting than 2-1 on an extremely reasonable Same Game Parlay on DraftKings Sportsbook.
