sports betting lines

The Orlando Magic swept their way into the Eastern conference championships and tonight they could be swept right out.

The Magic will look to extend their season and regain an ounce of pride after the Boston Celtics have ripped their hearts out during the first three games of this series.

No NBA team has comeback from a 0-3 deficit to win a playoff series, in fact in all of North American professional sports it’s only happened 4 times, most recently when the Boston Bruins choked away a 3-0 lead to the Philadelphia Flyers in this year’s NHL playoffs.

The NBA Odds Makers know history and the NBA Betting line reflects that history. The Celtics are -7 point favorites to sweep.

A bet on the Orlando Magic to extend the series will pay NBA bettors +300 on the moneyline.

NBA Betting Odds

Orlando Magic +7 +300

Boston Celtics -7 -370

Game Total 187

It will be interesting to see which if any of the Orlando Magic players show up to play tonight. They have the talent to win basketball games, as their 59 wins can attest but they lack the heart to win. The Magic don’t have the will of a champion. Of course, that has been the downfall of many great teams.

They put together team built for the regular season but once the playoffs started they are eaten alive and sent packing by a team of playoff hardened souls ready to do whatever it takes to get their hands on the Larry O’Brien trophy.

Dwight Howard’s lack of an inside game has cost the Magic at least one victory here and they could have grabbed the second game as well if D12 could have hit the bucket.

The play that best illustrates the difference between these two teams is the play where the Magic have the ball but it’s knocked in to their backcourt, Jason Williams runs back for it but Rajon Rondo dives past Williams to grab the loose ball picks up the dribble and then lays the ball in the basket around a dismayed Williams.

The effort and the determination of that play represent what the Celtics have been doing since game one of these playoffs.

In tonight’s game, the line of -7 seems a little high even though the Magic already have their Tee-Times booked. If you remember the Celtics were about +7 point underdogs when this series started. The point differential of the first two games was only 4 and 3 points.

The Magic are still men, they must have a little pride left in them somewhere and keep this game within the 7-point spread.