Los Angeles Lakers (57-25 SU, 34-46-2 ATS) vs. Boston Celtics (53-29 SU, 48-34 ATS), 8:00 p.m. EST, Sunday, June 13, 2010, TD Garden, Boston, Mass. TV: ABC
by Jason Green of Predictem.com
Point Spread: Lakers +3/Celtics -3
Over/Under: 187.5
This best of 7 series is tied at 2-2.
On Sunday night in Beantown in a very important Game 5 the Boston Celtics host the L.A. Lakers. The winner of this game will take the lead in the series and if the Lakers win they have 2 games to close out the series at home and if the Celtics win it will force the Lakers to win 2 straight in La La Land to repeat as champions.
The Celtics beat the Lakers on Thursday night with a big 4th quarter and key contributions from the bench. The Lakers had a 2-point lead heading into the 4th quarter in Game 4, but the Celtics outscored them by 9 points for a convincing 7-point victory. The Celtics got key buckets from the bench players of Rasheed Wallace, Nate Robinson and Tony Allen in the 4th quarter and Glen David came up huge going for 18 points and 5 boards in the game.
In Game 4 the Celtics’ bench outscored the Lakers’ bench 36-18.
Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol played well in Game 4, but the Celtics kept the other Lakers from killing them.
The Lakers may need Andrew Bynum to play in this game, as in Game 4 he only played 11 minutes in the first half and did not play in the second half.
The Lakers need to do a better job of holding onto the rock in Game 5, as in game 4 they committed 15 turnovers.
The Celtics tied the series with a 96-89 win on Thursday night. The high scorer for the Celtics in the game was Paul Pierce going for 19 points on 7/12 shooting and for the Lakers it was Kobe Bryant going for 33 points on 10/22 shooting. For the game the Celtics shot 37/83 from the floor for a FG% of 44.6% and the Lakers shot 32/71 for a FG% of 45/1%. The Celtics had 7 more rebounds in the game (41 to 34) and 3 fewer turnovers (12 to 15).
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The Lakers’ big men of Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum, and Lamar Odom need to do a better job keeping the Celtics off the offensive glass. In Game 4 the Celtics had 16 offensive boards and the Lakers only had 8.
Even though the Celtics only won by 7 points they have 13 more fast break points and 20 more points in the paint. The Lakers may need to get out and run more, as they only had 2 fast break points in Game 4.
The Lakers need a 3rd scorer to step up in Game 5, as Gasol and Bryant can’t do it all.
L.A. is 5-2 ATS in their last 7 playoff games as an underdog of 0.5-4.5, 5-2 ATS in their last 7 NBA Championship games, but they have not had much luck on the last day of the week only going 1-6 ATS in their last 7 Sunday games.
L.A. has an Under record of 4-1-1 in their last 6 games and an Under record of 3-1-1 in their last 5 playoff games as an underdog of 0.5-4.5.
Boston is 8-3 ATS in their last 11 home games, 7-3 ATS in their last 10 playoff games as a favorite, and 8-2 ATS in their last 10 NBA Championship games.
Boston has an Under record of 6-1 in their last 7 home games and an Under record of 3-1-1 in their last 5 games.
In the last 6 games between these 2 teams the Under record is 4-1-1.
Jason’s Pick: The Lakers have been able to come back big after a loss in this season’s playoffs and they will do so tonight. Zen Jackson will preach defense and the Lakers will listen and they will play much better on the boards in this game. No team has won consecutive games in this series and that trend will continue, as the Lakers will win this game and head back to L.A. up 3-2. Take the Lakers and the points.
