Boston easily won Games 1 and 2 at home and I really don’t see Atlanta having much of a path for success in this series, even with them now at home for the next two games.
Perhaps the Hawks’ shooting will start to improve after they went a dismal 5 of 29 from three in Game 1 and 42.6% overall in Game 2. Their defense isn’t very good, but each of the first two games did stay Under the total and that’s the way I see Game 3 going as well.
The Celtics are an elite team defensively and finished the regular season third in efficiency. In four of the five meetings this season, Boston has held Atlanta under 30% shooting from three. The one exception was Game 2 when the Hawks finished at 33.3% (16 of 48).
Trae Young has really struggled with his shot in the first two games. He’s 14 of 40 overall and 3 of 13 on three-point attempts.
Going back quite some time, the Under is now 41-16-2 in Hawks’ first round playoff games. Tonight should be no different. 8*