Boston at Houston

The Celtics won a Championship because they have players committed to playing defense, including their trio of stars - Garnett, Allen, and Pierce. The Celtics will do what they always do, and that is to come out and not try to fly past the Rockets, but make a defensive statement early. Houston now has a trio of stars now as they have added Ron Artest to Yao and McGrady with Artest as one of the best on the defensive end. That has translated to allowing just 39 first-half points per game in their two home contests. Houston has long been a defense first team and with two star-laden teams making early defensive statements, I'll go with the first-half UNDER here.