NBA Best Bets for Friday, June 14th
Welcome to my daily column of NBA best bets! Here at VSiN we have a ton of NBA content daily, so make sure to keep tabs on Zach Cohen who is doing an excellent job handicapping the league on a daily basis.
NBA Best Bets
Boston Celtics at Dallas Mavericks (-1, 211.5)
The series is all but over now that the Boston Celtics lead 3-0 over the Dallas Mavericks. Teams that have lost the first three games of a series are 0-156 in NBA history. The question becomes, how long does the series last?
As I told my fellow VSiN host Dustin Swedelson before Game 3 on Thursday: The only reason we’re going back to Boston is a parade.
The Celtics are the better team by a mile.
They have outscored the Mavericks by 11.1 points per 100 possessions in non-garbage time. Dallas has averaged a pathetic 1.034 points per possession in the series. Boston has absolutely picked apart the best paint defense in the NBA playoffs. It comes into the potential final game of the series shooting 81.4% at the rim.
The Mavericks have no answer for the relentless driving the Celtics have been relying on in this series. And the worst part for Dallas? Boston has yet to wake up from beyond the arc.
On Wednesday, the Celtics took 20 more 3-point attempts for the game, 13 more from the corners. They shot just 35.6% on all 3-pointers. This is a team that hit 38.8% of attempts from deep in the regular season.
I’ve been firmly in the Boston corner throughout this series and that is not changing tonight.
What will be fascinating is whether the betting public changes its tune after being burned both Wednesday and for the series.
Early numbers at DraftKings show 71% of the handle and 70% of bets on Boston as of this morning.
Better late than never.
Best Bet: Celtics ML (-110)
