Boston is well equipped and they know where everyone is on the floor. They play a more cohesive game and they are a deep team with depth on the bench, and good at isolation ball too. Boston won all four games this season against Dallas and covered all of them in the regular season. Boston has beaten teams all season at home by at least 9 plus points per game, averaging 121.8 points per game as they hold opponents to 107 points on average. Boston also shoots over 40% from the 3 at home. Boston has good spacing and shooting on the floor and will make it difficult for Dallas to cover all five players who can shoot at any point at once. These two teams did play March 1st with all the cast of characters that are in this game and Boston won 138-110. Boston has four players that can guard Luka and Porzingas is one of them. He is crucial to giving the Celtics that extra edge they need to put this game away. Dallas will need to respond with physicality in the paint while successfully controlling the rebounds. If they can’t then it will be a long night for this team. White and Holliday will cause problems in the backcourt for the Mavs while Porzingas and Horford will cause problems in the front court. Dallas is 1-5 in their last six games in the 1st game of a playoff series and that should continue in this series. It will be tough for Dallas to steal game 1 from this Celtics team who, after 7 years of playoff runs, will not take this first game for granted. Home teams in the final round of the NBA playoffs are 18-3 straight up and 17-4 against the spread.

Best bet: lay the points with Boston.