NBA Conference Finals Updated Forecasts
- Monday, May 17, 2010 5:00 PM
- Written By: AccuScore
Boston was actually the AccuScore Side Value pick in Game 1 and combined with hitting the Four Star Under pick Game 1 delivered a solid 2-1, +267 unit profit. We missed the point spread when Orlando won by -7 in simulations and the line was -6.5.
Despite its Game 1 loss the Magic are still given a 58 percent chance of winning the series because it has been such a good road team this year (25-16). Boston has struggled at home (just 24-17) and as we pointed out in our series preview, many key Magic three-point shooters are actually better on the road than at home in terms of shooting percentage. The Magic lost Game 1 because Dwight Howard couldn't finish with dunks and instead resorted to trying nifty And-1 layups that did not work. When Howard is playing that passively around the basket, the team is frankly better with Marcin Gortat. The Magic also shot under 25 percent from three-point range. If Howard had made half his FGs and Orlando had made 33 percent of its three-point shots, it could have won.
But definitely give credit to Boston who had some rough shooting from three starters (Garnett, Rondo and Perkins combined for 10-30) and still won. Ray Allen torched the Magic with great cuts to the basket and with some timely perimeter shots. Overall, both teams had unexpectedly poor shooting nights from key players that I do not expect to see continue all series long.
If the shooting numbers improve, Orlando should have time to come back to win in 6 or 7. If Dwight Howard cannot do a better job handling Kendrick Perkins' physical play, then the Celtics could definitely prove skeptics, like AccuScore, wrong.
| CELTICS LEAD ORLANDO 1-0 | ORL | BOS |
| Win Series | 58.0% | 42.0% |
| Win Series in 4 Games | 0.0% | 6.6% |
| Win Series in 5 Games | 13.6% | 8.6% |
| Win Series in 6 Games | 18.7% | 17.0% |
| Win Series in 7 Games | 25.7% | 9.8% |



