Boston hosts Chicago on Sunday night at TD Garden to start off their best-of-seven series in the first round of the Eastern Conference. This is a matchup that pits the highest-seeded team against the lowest-seeded team. The Bulls were just able to sneak into a wild finish to the regular season, owning the tiebreaker against the Miami Heat to make it in as the eighth seed.
The Celtics capitalized on the Cleveland Cavaliers struggling down the stretch and were awarded the highest seed. Both teams split the season series 2-2 with the home team winning all of them.
Tipoff is set for 6:30 PM Eastern time and the contest can be seen on TNT and the Watch TNT app.
Bulls (41-41 overall, 16-25 away, 42-40 ATS)
Chicago achieved their playoff hopes, and perhaps head coach Fred Hoiberg's future, after winning seven of their last nine games. Every win was meaningful, and they come in after absolutely devastating their two recent opponents, Orlando and Brooklyn. The knocked down the Magic 122-75, and after taking an extremely difficult one-point loss to the Nets, they pounded them 112-73.
Thanks to the blowouts, the starters have had plenty of rest for tonight's contest. Jimmy Butler saw the most action the recent win, scoring a team-high 25 points in nearly 35 minutes.
He went 8-for-19 from the field and hit 8-of-9 from the charity stripe. They only hit 43.2 percent of their shots as a team, but they still were able to score 112 points by hitting 14 3-pointers.
Celtics (53-29 overall, 30-11 home, 40-40-2 ATS)
Boston comes in with a three-game winning streak. Their most recent win came against Milwaukee, 112-94.
The Celtics were able to overcome an early 11-point deficit after the first quarter and were nearly able to win by 20 points. Four of the five starters had 12 or more points; Amir Johnson drilled 6-of-7 field goal attempts and hit two 3-pointers to finish with 16 points. Isaiah Thomas had 13 points and finished with a tremendous passing ratio of eight assists to one turnover.
Unfortunately for Boston, Thomas (28.9 ppg, 5.9 apg) is questionable for the first game. There's an undisclosed personal reason for why he could be out and he will be a game-time decision. Avery Bradley (16.3 ppg, 6.1 rpg) should be good to go despite suffering a hand injury in the season finale
Betting on Bulls and Celtics
Boston is a 6.5-point favorite at home with the total O/U set at 204.5 points. Chicago has won five straight games road games against the spread when the home team has a winning record.
