It's win or go home for the Boston Celtics, who will look to avoid a sweep against the Miami Heat tonight. But after Sunday night's performance, is there any reason to believe the Celtics have any chance in this one?
The Heat are on a mission, and more than even just dominating physically, they seem to have completely defeated the Celtics mentally. How will that affect stat lines tonight?
Here are the best PrizePicks plays for Tuesday, May 23's NBA action.
It's win or go home for the Boston Celtics, who will look to avoid a sweep against the Miami Heat tonight. But after Sunday night's performance, is there any reason to believe the Celtics have any chance in this one?
The Heat are on a mission, and more than even just dominating physically, they seem to have completely defeated the Celtics mentally. How will that affect stat lines tonight?
Here are the best PrizePicks plays for Tuesday, May 23's NBA action.
Wednesday’s Best NBA PrizePicks Player Predictions
This Season: 35-34
Gabe Vincent exploded for 29 points in Sunday's win over the Celtics. It was his highest point total of the entire season. So, this is the perfect time to fade him, right? In this instance, no.
The Celtics look like a team that has completely given up, and Vincent has been able to take advantage. We don't expect Vincent to score 29 again, but he has seen his point production elevate in this series. He scored 15 in Game 1 and nine in Game 2. He has a hot hand right now, and with the chance to close this series out, he should get above his season average for the third time in four games.
Jayson Tatum was horrendous in Game 3, scoring 14 points in 33 minutes of play. While he has been terribly disappointing for a lot of this postseason, the fact remains that Tatum can score at will, even when he and his team don't look very good.
Before Sunday's performance, he had scored 30 or more in three consecutive games. That's solid, even if the Celtics were just 1-2 during that span. Look for Tatum to attempt to completely take over. Whether he is successful or not is yet to be determined, but with the season on the line, we expect him to shoot a lot. That should lead to him getting into the low 30s again.
This number is a bit higher than is comfortable because Bam Adebayo is averaging over five assists per game during this series. However, when you look at the numbers, had he played his usual minutes in Game 3, he'd probably be averaging closer to seven assists per game.
The Celtics have not had an answer for Adebayo all series long. In Game 2, he had 17 rebounds and nine assists. Even if Adebayo reverts to his average of 3.2 assists per game, we like him to pull down at least 10 rebounds as he sees more playing time in a series-clinching scenario.
Also, take a look at our other best bets for Tuesday:
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Phil Wood is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Phil, check out his archive and follow him @Phil_Wood_Jr.
