On Thursday night, I was hanging at Miller Ale House with Bobby Booze and some friends with the intention of watching the Celtics stomp out the Miami Heat in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals, earning themselves a ticket to the big stage and a date with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Instead, I saw LeBron James turn the jungle into his personal kitchen, roasting the Celtics all night in a heavy double-digit beat down.
With Game 7 looming ahead this evening near South Beach, there has never been a sports bet that I've felt more comfortable with. In fact, I've already thrown money on it myself, and I'm not much of a gambling man.
Boston (+7.5) is once again the heavy underdog. Everyone is counting them out in the aftermath of their horrid display in Game 6. But while they did play a terrible brand of basketball, the officiating did steer back to the Heat for stretches and gave the league exactly what it had missed out on in the West Finals — a scintillating seventh game.
Now that the seventh game is here, I believe the NBA will approach it in a pretty fair manner. They may not particularly care which team moves on — either way, the storylines will be captivating. Tonight, I expect the officiating to be almost even. There shouldn't be a blatant discrepancy as there has been (for both teams) in certain games of this series. When you add this factor to the existing facts — the experienced Boston Celtics have far more positive intangibles going for them in a Game 7 than "King" James — the following bet is an absolute lock to end all locks.
We're going to play a two-way, four-point teaser here. You sports gamblers know what it means. The Celtics are +7.5 tonight, and the over/under is 179. Take the Celtics in the over, adding in the four-point tease. Your final bet should be a two-team teaser, having CELTICS (+11.5) and OVER 175.
There's simply no chance of this Celtics team laying down and losing by 12 or more tonight. Have you watched them in these playoffs? Have you seen what they've done? Their backs have been against the wall and people have doubted them. They've had piss-poor performances and followed those up with brilliant ones. Even if they come up short in this seventh game — which, for the record, I don't believe they will — there's no way they get blown out again. It will be a dog fight, and 175 is a pretty easy number for the total score to get over. The payout is even on this bet, and it feels like highway robbery to me.
The NBA has nearly maximized their revenue from these conference finals. They did their dirty work in the first four games of each series — getting 2-2 starts and guaranteeing at least six games. Now, it's just a question of whether or not they have a preference for the finals matchup. And while everyone would marvel over LeBron-versus-Durant, there is also the idea to consider that the Boston sports market is a phenomenal market to give one last chance in the finals.
Either way, I think that the better team will win tonight's game. The reffing should not be the deciding factor. Will the Celtics' age hurt them, or will their experience get them over the top? I cannot say for sure that I know, but it seems downright silly to count them out. This group will fight to the end, and there's no way in hell they're losing another blowout this evening.
UPDATE — The NBA is so rigged that they already accidentally posted these shirts for sale in their online store. They promptly took it down, but Toucher and Rich got a screenshot of it first. Not so sure about this lock anymore since the league is so God damn rigged.
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