Monday’s NBA card features two tied series in each conference. The Boston Celtics meet the Toronto Raptors in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals and the Los Angeles Clippers play the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Semifinals.
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Raptors (EVEN/-100) to beat the Celtics
OG Anunoby’s buzzer-beater to win Game 3 was one of the signature moments of the NBA restart and single-handedly reversed the course of this series. The Raptors were down 2-0 and no team has come back from 3-0 to win a series.
Toronto carried that momentum into Game 4 and got gutsy performances out of Kyle Lowery, Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet. One of the adjustments NBA Coach of the Year, Nick Nurse, has made is the extended playing time for Lowery and VanVleet.
Both have played more than 45 minutes in the past two games. According to the NBA community, Nurse’s rationale for this is all the officiating replays and huddles providing hidden breaks for his players.
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Nick Nurse is showing why he was named NBA’s Coach of the Year in this series. Toronto is finally looking like the defensive team we saw in the regular season (2nd in defensive efficiency) and held Boston to under 100 points for the first time in the series.
In regard to the defensive adjustments, Nurse said: “We’re trying to provide help and we’re trying to show them different looks and different matchups and things to try to keep some rhythm in our favor.”
Whatever zone or help schemes Nurse is employing are working. The Celtics shot a combined 32-77 from deep in the first two games, while they were just 16-64 in Games 3 and 4.
While Anunoby’s buzz-beater can be reasoned as lucky, I’d argue that Marcus Smart’s five 3-pointer fourth quarter in Game 2 was a lucky turn of events for Boston. Jayson Tatum may very well be the Eastern Conference player of the playoffs (I just made that up); but the battle-tested Raptors have figured out his co-stars. Toronto’s depth and experience are what will push them past Boston.
This is a great matchup, bet the RAPTORS (EVEN/-100) TAKE GAME 5 and control of the series.
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