**CLICK HERE TO GRAB OUR BEST Picks for 2012 NBA Betting!**<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\nKevin Garnett – When he is right physically he can still be a very effective player at both ends of the court. \u00a0He is the emotional leader of this team too.
\nPaul Pierce – I have always been a big fan of \u201cThe Truth\u201d. \u00a0When it comes to scoring the basketball it ain\u2019t always pretty but few are better.<\/p>\n
Since they put the original Big Three together the Boston Celtics have been in the conversation for the NBA Championship. \u00a0They won one and have come close a couple of other times but are now retooling a little bit. \u00a0Rajon Rondo has grown into one of the best point guards in the league and I like the way other players have adapted their games to his. \u00a0I also like the infusion of supporting talent brought in this offseason. \u00a0No superstars but I think they are better than they were last season.<\/p>\n
Most peg the Celtics as the top threat to Miami in the Eastern Conference and I agree with that opinion. \u00a0This is a very good team with great leadership and continuity. Sure they are going to get slagged for the fact that they have two aging superstars but the moves they have made in support should infuse the team with more energy and enable them to create more lineup combinations and take advantage of mismatches.<\/p>\n
Strengths<\/strong><\/p>\nThe Celtics may not be the most gifted team in the league but they are well coached and prepared for every situation. \u00a0It is a treat to watch experienced players like Garnett, Pierce and Rondo perform in the clutch and in Terry they are adding another player who has thrived in the tightest of situations. \u00a0That experience will show a few night in terms of lack of fresh legs but more often than not it is a huge benefit. [ad-6571516]<\/p>\n
Weaknesses<\/strong><\/p>\nThe Celtics have lots of good scorers but with Allen gone they are lacking that pure shooting presence, especially from deep. \u00a0It will be interesting to see what lineup winds up being the most effective for them as their best three point shooter and post player might be Pierce. \u00a0\u00a0Rondo scares no one with his shot and Terry and Barbosa like to slash through the court using all the tricks and angles that are out there to put the ball in the hoop.<\/p>\n
Prediction<\/strong><\/p>\nI imagine this Celtics team will look to position itself for the playoffs throughout the season so there will probably be some ugly games this year where they get down early and then just pack it in. \u00a0They should capture the Atlantic Division giving them one of the top spots in the Eastern Conference and are lucky to have lots of games against teams like the Raptors. \u00a0Come playoffs this team should be fully formed and ready to rock with more speed and pop than in recent years. \u00a0I really like the mix.<\/p>\n
Situations to watch for…<\/strong><\/p>\nRest is and will continue to be a key for Boston, or at least betting on Boston. \u00a0Their ATS record with no rest last year was 8-13 while playing with 1 days rest it was 30-22. \u00a0This is a proud team but one that has shown signs of being tired in the past. \u00a0I wouldn\u2019t bet blindly against them on back to backs because they are the type of team that finds motivation against certain other squads – but be mindful of their history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Boston Celtics Season Preview \u2013 NBA Predictions The Grizzlies have turned around their franchise from also ran to making the playoffs but you have to wonder if this group can really expect to make the next step.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":32877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[39626,56782,5961,5011,56900,4299,19299,19302,744,745,749,2381,3925],"class_list":["post-56885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-39626","tag-2012-nba-gambling","tag-boston","tag-boston-celtics","tag-boston-celtics-season-preview","tag-celtics","tag-celtics-odds","tag-celtics-predictions","tag-nba-betting","tag-nba-futures","tag-nba-odds","tag-nba-picks","tag-nba-predictions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56885"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56908,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56885\/revisions\/56908"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}