T.M. Selection: Celtics/Heat UNDER.

I am on the under in the Boston Celtics vs Miami Heat game on Thursday. The Celtics looked really good defensively for the 1st half of that 1st game against the Heat but they started to fall apart in the 2nd half which led to their loss in that game. They still had a very good defensive effort in the 1st half and were making it very difficult for the Heat to score. I think they are going to work hard to have that same defensive effort in this game but I also expect them to keep it up for the entire game since they saw how it could get away from them when they started to slip on defense. Marcus Smart should be returning for this game too and he is the best defensive player on the team so I think their defensive effort will be even better in this game than it was in the 1st game. The Heat ended up winning that 1st game with a dominant effort in the 2nd half but they didn't look very good in the 1st half and were trailing big the whole time. They played a lot better on defense in the 2nd half though and were able to make their comeback, taking the lead and never looking back. I think the Celtics are going to try harder here to not let that happen again, blowing a 10+ point lead like that and I think they would have had a better chance maintaining it with Smart in their rotation like he should be here. I think he is what they need to keep this a defensive game and defense is the strength of the Heat so I expect them to match the defensive effort by the Celtics on their home court here. I see this being a much lower scoring game now that the 2 teams know what they are playing againt in this series and I expect a great defensive effort from both teams here. I like the under in this game.

T.M. Prediction: 99-92 Heat.