Boston at Los Angeles

It's finally here and I am psyched! Lakers-Celtics - it doesn't get any better in the NBA. The Lakers will try and redeem their 2007-08 NBA Finals loss to the Celtics, where they dropped the series 4-2. Boston out-toughed LA that series but since then, LA has gotten tougher, and better and are coming into this one as the reigning champs. It looks to be a good series, with the two meetings this season resulting in one point wins for the visitor. The Lakers have scored 100+ in ten straight playoff games, but the defense of the Celtics is a lot more like Oklahoma City than the defenseless Jazz or Suns. The Lakers were limited to 95 ppg in that series and may be hard pressed to achieve that vs. a Celtics defense that has come to life in the playoffs. Boston is allowing just 81 ppg in 17 playoff games. I would expect the curtain to rise here to teams making a defensive statement early. Good teams (69%-75%) that are off of a lot of rest, playing just for the second time in seven days, have played the first-half UNDER to a winning mark of 28-9 with a total in this range. When instilled as a road dog of 3 points or less, the Celtics are 34-20 UNDER in the first-half the past three seasons. Los Angeles is 43-24 UNDER in the first-half this season when coming off a win. That includes 32-14 UNDER if they are off back-to-back wins. I like this one to start with defense and a feeling out process resulting in a low-scoring first half.