Game 5 Betting Odds: Boston Celtics at Milwaukee Bucks
- Spread: Bucks -9
- Over/Under: 218
- Time: 8 p.m. ET
- TV Channel: TNT
- Series Score: Bucks Lead 3-1
>> All odds as of Tuesday night. Download The Action Network App to get real-time odds and live win probabilities on your bets.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks dropped Game 1 at home but have since put together three straight wins.
Will they close out the series at home? More importantly, will they cover? Our analysts dive in.
Betting Trends to Know
The Celtics opened as eight-point underdogs. Under Brad Stevens, Boston is 13-18 ATS as a dog in the playoffs, including 0-6 SU and 1-5 ATS in late-series matchups (Games 5-7). – John Ewing
The Celtics have lost three consecutive games after winning Game 1. Since 2005, teams on losing streaks of at least three games have gone 42-62-2 ATS in the playoffs. – Ewing
As John noted, teams on extended losing streaks in the playoffs have been great fade bets, going 42-62-2 ATS. When you focus in on just Brad Stevens, though, you get a bit of a different story. In the regular season and playoffs, the Celtics are 17-8 ATS after losing at least three consecutive games straight-up and ATS. – Evan Abrams
The Bucks opened at 9.5-point favorites in Game 5 at home against the Celtics. Since 2005, home teams in Games 5-7 of a playoff series who opened as a favorite of 9.5 points or more are 34-2 (94.4%) straight-up, winning by 15.4 points per game. The only two losses came in Game 5 of the first round this year when the Clippers beat the Warriors as 15-point underdogs and back in 2006, when LeBron James and the Cavaliers beat the Pistons as 11-point underdogs also in a Game 5. – Abrams
Locky: How I'm Betting Game 5
Everything about the Celtics-Bucks series has actually made sense on some level … until we arrived at the third quarter of Game 4 in Boston Monday night. Khris Middleton and Giannis Antetokounmpo had both gotten their fourth fouls and gone to the bench. The Celtics starters were going up against the likes of Brook Lopez, Pat Connaughton, Sterling Brown, Ersan Ilyasova and Eric Bledsoe. And the Bucks didn’t just hold their own. They DOMINATED.
Connaughton was blowing up passing lanes and dunking the other way. Lopez was grabbing boards and knocking down 3s. Ilyasova was doing… whatever it is that he does. They really embarrassed Boston in that stretch, and by the start of the fourth the outcome really wasn’t that much in doubt, with reinforcements arriving for Milwaukee.
Considering how badly Boston handled that third quarter and how poor the offense looked for the majority of the second half, there shouldn’t be a lot of hope for the Celtics here.
Since Game 1, everything they’ve done has turned into settling for 3s, driving and kicking (but never driving and scoring) and a general lack of dominance from Kyrie Irving. With the Bucks having seen all of the wrinkles Brad Stevens can muster, what’s left? With that in mind here, I think this number is correct, or at least very close.
The one thing that would give me pause is that the Bucks are still very unaccustomed to being deep in the playoffs and playing meaningful games. They’ve never been in the spot they’re in right now. Therefore, the likelihood of a really unexpectedly poor performance increases, in my opinion.
I’m passing the side here. The total has dropped 2.5 points from Game 4 (when we were on the under big time and won) and is now in a range where I don’t think it’s worth much. The possibility of the Celtics quitting during this game is in play, and if that happens, who knows really what the fourth quarter is going to be like. — Ken Barkley
Editor’s note: The opinions on this game are from the individual writers and are based on their research, analysis and perspective. They are independent of, and may not always match with, the algorithm-driven Best Bets from Sports Insights.
