The Boston Celtics and Toronto Raptors are set to play Game 5 of their Eastern Conference Semifinals series this Monday evening at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time, and with the series tied up at two games each it is effectively a best of three series.
This makes the stakes of Game 5 as high as they could possibly be without being an elimination game, as whichever of the two franchises loses will have to win two games in a row to clinch the series.
While Boston blew out Toronto in Game 1, the rest of the series has been pretty close to evenly matched, with neither team showing anything especially convincing in terms of having figured the other out, both teams having stretches of cold and hot shooting throughout the series.
Should the Boston Celtics consider playing more Time Lord? https://t.co/iGtauostwG
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) September 6, 2020
Apart from the possibility of playing Robert Williams III more on Boston’s end, there aren’t a lot of obvious moves either team could make, especially with Toronto having won the last two contests.
Injuries for both clubs remain largely identical, with the Raptors owning a clean bill of health and the Celtics still without veteran forward Gordon Hayward (ankle), rookie wing Javonte Green (knee) and first-year center Vincent Poirier (personal reasons).
Given the relative parity between the two contenders, we’ll continue picking the Celtics with a 99-97 win, even though most online sportsbooks still favor the Raptors to the tune of -1.5 on the spread.
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