Boston at Cleveland

Boston took care of business at home, as they have all playoffs. They completely shut down the Cavs, holding them to 72 and 73 points. In the first half, Cleveland scored 37 and 36 points. But now Boston must go on the road where they struggled mightily against the lowly Hawks in the first round. Will they struggle again here? It's possible but there are some important differences. Atlanta was a very athletic team that found success beating the Celtics to spots. Cleveland is not that team. Right now, the Cavs are a one man show. As they showed in games one and two, if they can stifle LeBron, the rest of the team doesn't have the capability to show up. This Cavs offense is custom-made for the Celtics defense and we think they will again have success holding down the Cavs here. On the road, the Celtics offense certainly dips. In the playoffs, they have averaged 95.4 ppg vs. 100 per game in the regular season. Cleveland has held opponents in the playoffs to 44.6 ppg in the first half. The Cavs are 7-0 UNDER in the first half this season after holding their last five opponents to 42% or less from the field. They are 19-7 UNDER in the first half after two straight UNDERs and they are 7-0 UNDER after a game in which 165 or fewer points were scored. They are also 10-2 UNDER this season in the first-half vs. top-level teams (those at .700 or better). Cleveland did not lose games one and two because of defense. It was offense. At home their defense will play that much better and we don't see their offense suddenly getting that much better. We'lll back a very low-scoring first half here.