The Boston Celtics are one win away from closing out the Miami Warmth and advancing to the second spherical of the playoffs for the third season in a row and seventh time up to now eight seasons. They will get that victory at house at TD Backyard on Wednesday evening in Recreation 5. 

Each groups shall be short-handed for this one. The Warmth shall be with out quite a lot of key gamers, together with Jimmy Butler, Terry Rozier and Josh Richardson, who haven’t performed within the collection, and Jaime Jaquez Jr., who was harm in Recreation 4. As for the Celtics, they are going to be lacking Kristaps Porzingis, who left Recreation 4 early as effectively and has been identified with a calf pressure. 

Here is every thing you might want to find out about Recreation 5:

Celtics vs. Warmth Recreation 5

• Date: Wednesday, Might 1 | Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
• Location: TD Backyard — Boston, Massachusetts
• TV channel: TNT | Stay stream: TNT app
• Odds: Celtics -14 | O/U 200.5

Storylines

Celtics: Even with Kristaps Porzingis’ damage, the result of this collection isn’t unsure. The most important query for the Celtics is how rapidly they will maintain enterprise so as to acquire additional relaxation for the second spherical. Their house playoff kind has been unusually poor in recent times, together with a 5-6 mark final season and a 1-1 begin up to now this time round. In opposition to the Hawks final season, they let a possible close-out recreation slip away at house in Recreation 5 of the primary spherical and had to return on the highway for an additional recreation. They will not desire a repeat of that situation. 

Warmth: Jaime Jaquez Jr. has joined the injured checklist for the Warmth, who are actually with out 4 of their top-eight scorers from the common season. They will play extraordinarily exhausting on the defensive finish and make life as depressing as doable for the Celtics, however they merely haven’t got sufficient firepower to maintain up. They have been beneath 90 factors in every of the final two video games, and the one time they’ve cracked 100 on this collection is after they made a playoff-record 23 3-pointers in probably the greatest capturing video games in NBA postseason historical past. 

Prediction

Fourteen factors is a ridiculous line for a playoff recreation, however all three of the Celtics’ wins on this collection have come by not less than that many factors. There is not any actual purpose to count on something totally different in Recreation 5. Choose: Celtics -14