BetUS Sportsbook is back with another round of NBA Finals picks for Thursday night, as the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers duke it out for the fourth time in this best of seven series. The Lakers have to feel like an accomplished team after Tuesday night’s 91-84 victory, as they took a 2-1 series lead and guaranteed that, regardless of whether Boston wins both Games 4 and 5 or not, that the NBA championship will either be handed to them in Beantown, or the series will be going back to Tinseltown for at least a Game 6.
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Boston Celtics (63-39, 46-54-2 ATS) vs. Los Angeles Lakers (71-30, 44-54-3 ATS)
•Game Date/Time: Thursday, June 10th, 9:00 ET
•Game Location: TD Banknorth Garden, Boston, MA
•TV/Radio Broadcast: ABC, TSN, Sirius

NBA Finals Odds: Los Angeles Lakers +3.5 vs. Boston Celtics -3.5 – Game Total 190.5

HC Phil Jackson will tell you that his team still has a lot of work to do offensively if it hopes to win the NBA title. Shooting 44.7 percent from the field probably won’t cut it, but it’s hard to argue with the fact that G Kobe Bryant shot 10/29 from the floor. No, that’s not a fantastic percentage, but generally speaking, the more that Kobe shoots, the better off the Lakers are. Bryant scored 29 points, coming up just one shy of his sixth 30+ point performance in his L/7 games overall in Tuesday’s ‘W’. G Derek Fisher battled foul trouble all night, but his 6/12 shooting from the floor and 16 total points were a huge boost for a team that struggled at times offensively when its star wasn’t connecting from the field.

Game 3 may as well have been called “Disaster Piece Theatre” for G Ray Allen. The Connecticut Huskies standout only scored two points and failed to hit a shot from the floor. His 0/13 effort, eight of which came from downtown, really crushed the offensive flow of the game for the C’s all night long. F Paul Piece only scored 15 points, while G Rajon Rondo was held to 11. The star was F Kevin Garnett, who erased the memories of two awful games by shooting 11/16 from the field and scoring 25 points.

The team winning the rebounding battle is now 3-0 both SU and ATS in this series, as LA held that advantage 43-35 in Game 3.

NBA Finals Insider Tip: The Celtics are 7-3 ATS in their L/10 home games and are 10-4-1 ATS in their L/15 clashes with the Lakers overall.

Here’s some food for thought: Had Allen not gone 0/13 from the floor in Game 3, the Celtics would’ve shot 53.3 percent from the field. Odds have it, that won’t be the case again in Game 4, but odds have it, Allen will end up playing a game that is somewhere between the ridiculous Game 2 outing that he had in LA and the dismal one that he had in Game 3.

Also, the referees pretty much made it impossible for the Celtics to get into a rhythm after blowing the whistles on them what seemed to be almost every Lakers possession. With a new crop of zebras in the “Garden” for Game 4, I got a feeling some major make-up calls are certainly in the cards.

The Celtics are going to be desperate and fighting for their lives. Back the hosts for your NBA Finals picks as they tie this series up to set up a crucial Game 5.

My NBA Playoff Prediction: Boston by 8
Source: BetUS Locker Room Featured on: Handicapperspicks.com