Who’s Playing
Los Angeles Clippers @ Boston Celtics
Current Records: Los Angeles 11-7, Boston 14-3
How To Watch
What to Know
The Celtics will be playing the full four quarters on Monday, but they’re expected to have things wrapped up well before that. They and the Los Angeles Clippers will face off at 7:30 p.m. ET at TD Garden without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Each of these teams will be battling to keep a five-game winning streak alive.
The Celtics are headed into this one after the oddsmakers set last week’s over/under low at 222, but even that wound up being too high. They skirted past the Timberwolves 107-105. The 107-point effort marked Boston’s lowest-scoring contest of the season, but in the end it didn’t matter.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead the Celtics to victory, but perhaps none more so than Jaylen Brown, who went 7 for 10 from beyond the arc en route to 29 points. What’s more, Brown also posted a 70% three-point shooting accuracy, which is the highest he’s posted since back in March.
Meanwhile, the Clippers posted their biggest victory since April 5th on Sunday. They put the hurt on the 76ers with a sharp 125-99 win. Los Angeles pushed the score to 97-72 by the end of the third, a deficit Philadelphia had little chance of recovering from.
The Clippers’ win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from James Harden, who scored 23 points along with eight assists.
The Clippers were working as a unit and finished the game with 31 assists. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as the 76ers only posted 22.
Boston has been performing incredibly well recently as they’ve won seven of their last eight matches, which provided a nice bump to their 14-3 record this season. As for Los Angeles, their victory ended a three-game drought on the road and puts them at 11-7.
Monday’s game is shaping up to be a scrappy matchup: The Celtics haven’t given up the ball easily this season, having only averaged 11.4 turnovers per game (they’re ranked third in turnovers per game overall). It’s a different story for the Clippers, though, as they’ve been averaging 15.7. Given the Celtics’ sizable advantage in that area, the Clippers will need to find a way to close that gap.
The Celtics might still be hurting after the devastating 115-96 loss they got from the Clippers in their previous meeting back in January. Can the Celtics avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We’ll find out soon enough.
Odds
Boston is a big 9.5-point favorite against Los Angeles, according to the latest NBA odds.
The line on this game has moved quite a bit since it opened, as it started out with the Celtics as a 5-point favorite.
The over/under is 218.5 points.
See NBA picks for every single game, including this one, from SportsLine’s advanced computer model. Get picks now.
Series History
Boston and Los Angeles both have 5 wins in their last 10 games.
- Jan 27, 2024 – Los Angeles 115 vs. Boston 96
- Dec 23, 2023 – Boston 145 vs. Los Angeles 108
- Dec 29, 2022 – Boston 116 vs. Los Angeles 110
- Dec 12, 2022 – Los Angeles 113 vs. Boston 93
- Dec 29, 2021 – Los Angeles 91 vs. Boston 82
- Dec 08, 2021 – Los Angeles 114 vs. Boston 111
- Mar 02, 2021 – Boston 117 vs. Los Angeles 112
- Feb 05, 2021 – Boston 119 vs. Los Angeles 115
- Feb 13, 2020 – Boston 141 vs. Los Angeles 133
- Nov 20, 2019 – Los Angeles 107 vs. Boston 104