NBA Betting Lines, Celtics vs Heat Odds, Prediction

It’s a possible Eastern Conference first-round playoff preview on Friday night, when the defending conference champion Boston Celtics visit the Miami Heat on national TV. Boston is a solid favorite on the NBA Betting Lines, but those are a bit in flux with some injury questions.

The Celtics are all but locks to finish second in the East regular-season standings, meaning they would face the No. 7 seed in the first round.

Spread/Total Subject to Change: Celtics -8 (total 216)
Expert Prediction: Celtics 112, Heat 105

How to Bet Celtics vs Heat NBA Betting Lines & TV Info

NBA Moneylines: Miami +257 / Boston -333
When: Friday, 7 PM ET
Where: Kaseya Center
TV: NBA TV
Stream: NBA.com, NBA TV app

That’s the second team to come out of the play-in tournament, where Miami is headed as the current No. 9 seed. If the Heat stays there and win both play-in games, they would be the No. 7.

Boston leads the season series 2-0, and they play once more in the regular season on April 2 in Beantown. They last met on Feb. 10 in South Florida and the Celtics rolled 103-85 behind 33 points from Jayson Tatum. The Celtics took a whopping 53 3-pointers in the game and only 32 2-pointers. They were without All-Star Jaylen Brown and fellow starter Jrue Holiday.

Bam Adebayo scored 22 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for Miami, missing Tyler Herro and Jaime Jaquez Jr. due to illness. The Heat shot 33.7% and fell under 90 points in five straight games against Boston, with a 2-67 record shooting under 35%.

Including the playoffs, Boston has now won five straight meetings with Miami, each of them one-sided — 104-84, 102-88 and 118-84 in the last three games of the 2024 first-round series, 108-89 on Dec. 2 and then that 18-point win. Boston leads the all-time series 85-53 and 41-30 in Miami.

Celtics Try To Avoid 2-Game Skid

Boston aims to avoid a third two-game losing streak after a 118-112 home loss to Oklahoma City, halting their five-game winning streak. The Celtics tied the NBA record for 3-point attempts with 63 but struggled late, converting only 1 of 9 attempts in the last eight minutes as the Thunder closed strong.

All-Star Jayson Tatum was in question after missing Monday’s game with a knee issue but played and had 33 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. It was Tatum’s 26th game of the season with at least 30 points. He has averaged 28.4 points, 9.7 rebounds and 7.4 assists since the All-Star break.

Al Horford

Center Horford, at 38 years old in his 18th season, recorded 18 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, and two blocks, becoming the third-oldest player to achieve such stats. He also matched a career-high with six 3-pointers. Over his last four games, he averaged 15.8 points and 9.0 rebounds, excelling with at least eight rebounds in nine of 13 contests.

Horford played more minutes than usual as starting center Kristaps Porziņģis sat out his seventh straight game due to a viral illness. Porzingis was originally listed as questionable before being ruled out a couple of hours prior to tip-off. Boston head coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters pregame that he did not have a sense of when Porzingis might return.

JOIN NOW

NBA Betting Lines provided by MyBookie

Heat Clearly Miss Jimmy Butler

Miami just hasn’t been the same since dealing All-Star Jimmy Butler at the trade deadline to Golden State, and lost its fifth game in a row Wednesday, 119-104 vs. the Clippers. Los Angeles entered on the second night of a back-to-back with both Kawhi Leonard and Norm Powell unavailable.

Miami has lost four of five home games, trailing Atlanta by 2.5 games in the Eastern Conference play-in race. A 13-4 Clippers run in the fourth quarter extended their lead. This marks Miami’s fourth five-game losing streak in the past seven years.

Andrew Wiggins

Wiggins was the big piece back from the Warriors in the Butler deal and played well in the loss with 22 points, three rebounds, five assists and three blocks. Andrew has scored 22 points in two of his last three outings and has five 20-point games since joining the Heat. All-Star Tyler Herro was great with 31 points, seven assists and six rebounds.

Erik Spoelstra

Through Spoelstra’s first 16 seasons as the Heat’s head coach, the team has finished the regular season with a losing record just twice. But Spoelstra’s third sub-.500 regular season since becoming the Heat’s head coach in 2008 is coming. Forward Nikola Jovic (10.7 PPG) is likely done for the season due to injury.

Kevin Love

“He’s been very positive,” Heat veteran Love said when asked how Spoelstra has handled this turbulent stretch. “He’s somebody who’s always in a growth mindset. He is somebody who always wants to see guys get better. He has done a lot better job of celebrating the small wins throughout the course of a season.”

NBA Betting Lines Celtics vs Heat and Game Trends

Celtics are 4-2 ATS in their last 6 games.
Boston are 5-0 ATS in their last 5 games against Miami.
Celtics are 7-0 SU in their last 7 games when playing on the road against Miami.
Boston are 3-7 ATS in their last 10 games played on a Friday.
Heat are 6-3 ATS in their last 9 games.
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Miami’s last 6 games.
Miami are 1-5 SU in their last 6 games at home.
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Miami’s last 5 games against Boston.

NBA Betting Lines Celtics vs Heat: Expert Prediction

Over the six games he appeared in during Boston’s just-completed homestand, Jaylen Brown posted a team-best +14.7 net rating in 228 minutes on the court. The Celtics had a team-worst minus-10.6 net rating in his 108 minutes on the bench.

The Celtics are 24-7 on the road this season for the second-best road winning percentage in the NBA at 77.4 percent. Boston’s road record ranks second in Celtics franchise history, with the best at 80.0 percent (32-8) in 1972-73.

Jayson Tatum

Tatum is one of only five NBA players averaging at least 25.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 5.0 assists this season (Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Dončić, Nikola Jokić, LeBron James). The Celtics have won by 20+ points in an NBA-leading 14 games this season, eight shy of the team record.

The Heat have held opponents to under 100 points 14 times this season, going 13-1. Tyler Herro has currently scored in double figures in a career-high 92-straight games dating back to last season, including both the regular season and postseason, tying the fifth-longest streak in franchise history. Additionally, he has scored in double-figures in 87-straight regular season games, tying the fourth-longest streak.

Tyler Herro

Herro is just eight made 3-pointers shy from tying Damon Jones (225) for the fifth-most during a single season in team history. Herro is the fourth player in franchise history to record at least three 40-point games in a single season, joining Dwyane Wade (six times), LeBron James (twice) and Alonzo Mourning.

Duncan Robinson has currently scored in double-figures off the bench in a career-long nine-straight games, including two 20-point games, surpassing his previous best of four consecutive. His nine-game streak is the longest by a Heat reserve this season and ties the third-longest overall double-figure scoring streak of his career. Celtics 112, Heat 105.