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May, 12 2008 8:00pm EST
ATS: Boston Celtics +2.5 (-110)
LOSS for -3 unit(s)

Boston Celtics at Cleveland Cavaliers

Play ON Boston Celtics (+) @ Cleveland @ 8:05 PM ET There comes a point for professional athletes where enough is enough and the feeling here is that this is the game where the Celtics have reached that point. Tired of hearing about their road struggles, and needing a win to avoid seeing this series get tied up at two games apiece, look for Boston to hit the floor with plenty of energy and emotion Monday night. The Celtics were the best road team in the league in the regular season as they went 31-10. However, they are now 0-4 on the road in the playoffs and its time for the stars to step up and they know it. Boston actually played a decent game on Saturday in the final three quarters. The problem is that this came after the Celtics had allowed the Cavaliers to take a 32-13 first quarter lead! Boston comes out fully intent on avoiding the problem of allowing their opponents to get off to fast starts on the road. An amazing stat from Saturdays Game Three that is highly unlikely to be repeated is the Cavaliers as a team making 32 of 53 shots from the floor (excluding LeBron James numbers). In other words, just about everybody was hot for the Cavaliers in Game Three except James. Normally that would spell disaster for Cleveland and it will on Monday. James has not shot the ball well in any of the games in this series and the Celtics will continue to stifle him with strong defensive efforts. Boston will force Cleveland to make other players beat them. It worked in the Cavaliers favor in Game Three but that is unlikely to be repeated in Game Four tonight. For all the Cavs, except James, to combine to make more than 60% of their shots from the floor is certainly an atypical performance! Clevelands bench combined to make an amazing 12 of 16 (75%) from the floor! After holding the Cavaliers to 72 and 73 points, respectively, in Games One and Two in Boston, the Celtics allowed the Cavs to run roughshod over them in Cleveland in Game Three Saturday. Even though many will look and say this is nothing new because the Hawks beat the Celtics in all three games in Atlanta, this loss to the Cavaliers was quite different for the Celtics because it was a blowout loss. Sometimes it takes a blowout loss to wake a team up and that is what has happened for the Celts. The game on Saturday was the first time this entire postseason where the Celtics were involved in a game that they really had no shot to win. The Celts got down so big they simply had no chance to climb back into it. This indeed was a wake-up call for the Celtics and were so confident that they will answer the call that this game has been given BookieKiller status!