NBA Regular Season 2023/24, Tuesday, 02.04.2024
In this phase of the regular season, carelessness creeps in from time to time, so that occasionally even top teams can suddenly fall victim to a team at the bottom of the table.
Nevertheless, due to the special circumstances that will accompany this game, my Hornets Celtics tip sees the C’s approaching a start-to-finish victory in which the heavy favorite will push the tempo to the end.
The Celtics may be dominating within the Eastern Conference, but they’ve also developed a disturbing habit of falling asleep at the wheel.
During the week, they became only the tenth team in NBA history to give away a 30-point lead (!) in a narrow 118-120 loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
That can still be tolerated in regular March games. After all, they already have a comfortable 10.5-game lead over the second-place team in the standings …
So this game against Atlanta wasn’t necessarily decisive for them. But it’s that kind of inconsistency that can make the difference between survival and elimination in the playoffs!
What’s important for my Hornets Celtics tip tonight, though, is the way the C’s handled their loss to the Hawks.
It was that hello-wake-up sign that prompted the troops in green and white to keep the tension up until the end in the follow-up game against a much stronger New Orleans squad (104-92).
In fact, the Head Coach must even have given them a message at half-time: “Boys, don’t blow it like against the Hawks!”.
In the third quarter alone, they conceded thirteen points on the scoreboard (!) to the Pels, who were by no means playing badly.
As a result, the defeat against the Hawks may have been just the slap in the face the Bostonians needed to stop them from simply putting their feet up for several weeks on end
Boston’s upcoming opponent, the Hornets, is a franchise that is currently not going through a successful period and is now increasingly plagued by bad luck.
The team’s only real superstar, LaMelo Ball, signed a lucrative contract in the off-season but has only played 22 games so far this season due to injuries.
As a result, Charlotte brought forward the already planned shake-up in February as part of the trade deadline and let various key players such as Terry Rozier and Gordon Hayward leave early
In exchange for proven players like Rozier and Hayward, Charlotte got relatively young and inexperienced players in Vasilije Micic and Tre Mann, who are talented but still have to mature properly in 2023/24.
It is therefore no coincidence that the Hornets have lost eight of their last nine regular-season games! To make matters worse, they’ve also lost by an exceedingly wide margin.
In each of their last four losses, they were outscored by at least 12 points on the scoreboard by the winning team. They were even beaten pretty badly by the Hawks (91-132) and Cavaliers (92-115) at the end of March …
Charlotte is simply not really competitive in the NBA at the moment – in contrast to the lucrative Neobet welcome bonus in the bookmaking scene – and that has to be said in no uncertain terms.
The only thing the fans of the “Hive” could hope for is that the green-and-whites underestimate them considerably tonight. But I don’t think that’s likely to be the case
Because not only will the unspeakable performance in the final period against the Hawks keep the C’s on their toes tonight, but the 118-121 overtime loss to their upcoming opponent in late November will serve as a reminder not to back down.
Even then, they didn’t live up to their role as favorites with average odds of 1.30, so I just can’t see them taking the same opponent lightly a second time!
Conclusion: If the Celtics want to, they can outplay this opponent in its current form by a difference of 20 to 30 points.
Without the white flag already flying over the Hornets’ headquarters, Ball’s injury has prompted the franchise to initiate a total roster shakeup early on.
The way I see Boston right now, they should be out for revenge for the loss they suffered in November and give their opponent no room to develop tonight.
According to my Hornets Celtics betting tip, the Green and White will win by at least 17 points
My bet: Celtics win with HC -16.5
