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The Boston Celtics and Miami Heat will play in an Eastern Conference preseason matchup on Friday night. It's time to continue our NBA odds series and make a Celtics-Heat prediction and pick.
The Celtics and Heat will play Friday evening with one eye on the regular season, as each team will look to round into shape with the real season starting next week. The Heat open their season with a matchup vs. the Milwaukee Bucks, who swept them in the first round of the playoffs over the Summer. Boston opens their regular season with the New York Knicks.
Here's how the bookmakers have set the Celtics-Heat odds for this Friday matchup.
NBA Odds: Celtics-Heat Odds
Boston Celtics +7.5 (-110)
Miami Heat -7.5 (-110)
Over 214.5 points (-110)
Under 214.5 points (-110)
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Why The Celtics Can Cover The Spread
Boston will be a bit short-handed in this one, as Marcus Smart, Payton Pritchard, Jaylen Brown and Al Horford are all listed as out on the Celtics injury report. Meanwhile, Miami will presumably play their projected regular season rotation after sitting eight regular players Thursday night in Atlanta. This appears to be Miami's last tune-up with their regular players ahead of the season. Still, the Celtics may want to get the healthy members of their rotation as much run as they can together, while obviously regular players on each side may be done by the end of the third quarter. The Celtics can cover because they still have Jayson Tatum, though if he is later ruled out or only plays a handful of minutes, they might be in trouble this evening.
Why The Heat Can Cover The Spread
The Heat will play their guys Friday after sitting them Thursday vs. the Hawks. The exception being Victor Oladipo, who is still working his way back due to injury. Miami is set to have the rest of their rotation vs. Boston. This gives them a great shot to cover vs. the short-handed Celtics, but if they have seen enough from their regulars at some point, they could always pull the plug at any moment, as per usual for any preseason game. The Heat will be playing their sixth preseason game on Friday, and will likely want to ramp up some of their key guys ahead of the regular season next week.
Final Celtics-Heat Prediction & Pick
Miami is the healthier team this evening, and they'll be at home as well. Pick Miami to cover the points as they should have a depth advantage with nearly a handful of key guys from the Celtics rotation on the shelf on Friday. While we can't be sure exactly how much Miami's starters will play on Friday, they are the safer play with so much production unavailable for Boston.
FINAL CELTICS-HEAT PREDICTION & PICK: Heat -7.5 (-110)
