The Boston Celtics and the Oklahoma City Thunder collide at the Paycom Center on Monday night.
The Boston Celtics have been in red-hot form as they’ve won eight of their last nine games overall and they will be aiming for a fourth straight victory after blowing past the Nuggets in a 124-104 road win last night. Jayson Tatum led the team with 30 points and seven assists, Jaylen Brown added 30 points on 12 of 19 shooting while Payton Pritchard provided the spark off the bench with 17 points on six of six shooting. As a team, the Celtics shot a sizzling 57 percent from the field and 19 of 40 from the 3-point line as they dominated right from the start and never looked in danger after outscoring the Nuggets by 35-16 in the second quarter to take a 25-point lead into halftime.
Meanwhile, the Oklahoma City Thunder have been in a major slump as they’ve lost 12 of their last 14 games overall and they will be hoping to arrest a nine-game slide after coming up short against the Magic in a 90-85 road loss last night. Darius Bazley led the team with 18 points, Tre Mann added 13 points while Isaiah Roby chipped in with 11 pints, 10 rebounds and two blocks. As a team, the Thunder shot just 32 percent from the field and 13 of 48 from the 3-point line, but they were scrappy on the defensive end and worked their way to a seven-point lead in the fourth quarter, only to go ice-cold as they managed just nine points in the final 7:27 to allow the Magic to run them down in the end.
Looking at the betting trends, the Celtics are 7-2 ATS in their last nine road games, 1-4 ATS in their last five games playing on zero days’ rest and 6-2 ATS in their last eight games overall. The Thunder are 2-6-2 ATS in their last 10 home games, 15-7-3 ATS in their last 25 games against a team with a winning record and 5-1-2 ATS in their last eight games against a team above .600.
Head to head, the under is 5-1 in the last six meetings in Oklahoma City, the Celtics are 1-4 ATS in the last five meetings overall and the Celtics are 5-1-1 ATS in the last seven meetings in Oklahoma City.
The Thunder have been one of the coldest teams in the league and they will likely be severely shorthanded once again as Josh Giddey, Derrick Favors and Luguentz Dort are all still out while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is listed as day to day. The line is quite hefty for this one, but the Celtics are currently one of the hottest teams in the league at the moment, they’ve got all their players healthy and just blew past the Nuggets in an easy win last night. The Thunder could hang in the contest if they had their full rosters, but with so many injuries, I’ll stick with the Celtics to get the job done in this spot.