Celtics vs Hawks Betting Preview: Can Hawks Stop Boston’s Win Streak?

The Boston Celtics have had a dominant start to their season, sporting an 11-3 record that includes seven-straight wins. While they’ve had a fairly easy schedule thus far, they do have notable wins over the Sixers in the season opener and against the Memphis Grizzlies and Denver Nuggets.

Their only three losses came against the Chicago Bulls in what was an off shooting night for the Celtics and two close losses to the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Hawks got off to a slower start but have really turned things around as of late and seem to have hit their stride.

The spread for this game opened at Boston -2.5 and has moved up to -3. The Celtics sit at -145 on the Moneyline while the Hawks are at +125. The total opened at 232.5 and has ticked up a few points to 234.5.

Let’s dive into our Celtics vs Hawks betting preview to see if we can make sense of this movement.

Scoring, Scoring, and More Scoring

We start our Celtics vs Hawks betting preview by taking a look at the total. The total opened pretty high and has only moved up, but for good reason. The NBA standings  have the Celtics ranked at the top of the league when it comes to scoring, averaging 120 points per game.

This is a team whose offense looks like a well-oiled machine with the third-best field-goal percentage and fourth-best three-point percentage.

The Hawks offense took a little time to get going with the acquisition of Dejounte Murray as he and Trae Young learned to play together. Both players are extremely ball-dominant which some thought would cause problems in the backcourt, but so far they’ve learned to play together nicely.

The Hawks haven’t shot well from three-point land so far this season, but they are excelling in the mid-range which is something that Boston struggles to defend. Atlanta is putting up an average of 115.6 points per game and their offense only continues to look better with each passing game.

Defense? What’s That?

The uptick in the total also makes sense when you look at both teams’ defenses. Last season, Boston could slow anyone down on the defensive end. This year, it’s an entirely different story.

The Celtics are giving up an average of 114 points per game, which ranks 19th in the league, and have given up at least 112 points in 10 games this year.

Boston has also been a poor rebounding team without Robert Williams in the frontcourt for them, which will give Atlanta’s John Collins and Clint Capela plenty of ways to capitalize on second-chance opportunities.

The ‘Total’ Skinny…

We wouldn’t exactly say Atlanta’s defense is anything to write home about, but it’s definitely better than the Celtics. If this game stays under the total of 234.5 it will be because of the Hawks three-point defense.

That’s where Atlanta excels, giving up the fifth-fewest three-point attempts per game. That will be especially important against a team like the Celtics that shoot a high volume of threes.

Nonetheless, our Celtics vs. Hawks betting preview still likes this game to be fast paced with plenty of scoring, so we lean to the over.

Head to PointsSpreads.com for more advice on NBA picks and parlay

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