The Boston Celtics are one of the NBA’s best teams at covering spreads on the highway this season.
It’s far from a large sample size, but there’s no ignoring the C’s were a moneymaker in the first half when laying points away from TD Garden. Boston boasted the second-best road favorite mark at 10-4 ATS (71%) — a $100 bettor would be up $560 — and only Memphis was better as road chalk.
Best road favorites in NBA:
Grizzlies 9-2 (82%)
Celtics 10-4 (71%)
Raptors 5-2 (71%)
Bucks 13-7 (65%)
Bulls 9-5-1 (64%)
Suns 13-8 (62%)
Time will tell if betting Boston as a road favorite remains profitable.
Conversely, the Celtics have not been a great bet when laying points at home. They’re the fourth-worst team at making you money in that role with an 11-17 (39%) ATS record against the number.
A $100 bettor would be down $770 betting Boston blindly as a home favorite.
Celtics home favorite records via Team Rankings:
’22: 11-17 (39%)
’21: 15-13 (54%)
’20: 14-13-1 (52%)
’19: 22-20 (52%)
’18: 19-18-2 (51%)
’17: 21-24 (47%)
’16: 24-14 (63%)
“I haven’t gone out of my way to lay points with the Celtics at home in several years,” one professional bettor told NESN. “Ever since they brought in Kyrie (Irving) and (Al) Horford, you’ve had to lay a premium with them at home because most people want to lay the points. Sometimes, my numbers are almost two full points lower than the market. So if I make Boston -3.5, the line would close -5.5.
“Two points might not sound like a lot, but every half-point adds up over time.”
Boston Celtics ATS numbers this season:
All games: 29-29-2 (50%)
Home games: 13-17-1 (43%)
Home favorites: 11-17 (39%)
Home underdogs: 2-0-1 (100%)
Road games: 16-12-1 (57%)
Road favorites: 10-4 (71%)
Road underdogs: 6-8-1 (43%)
Meanwhile, the Celtics weren’t drawing much interest in the NBA futures market, but a white-hot stretch to close the first half certainly changed all that. Boston opened the regular season around 40- or 50- to win the championship and those title odds got as high as 150-1 in Las Vegas in late January.
“We took money on them at 60-1 to win the East prior to the run before the All-Star break,” Westgate SuperBook vice president of risk management Jeff Sherman told NESN. “And now we’re all the way down to 12-1, so that market has moved drastically over the last few weeks.”
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