NBA Betting Preview: Boston Celtics vs. Atlanta Hawks Game 5 Odds, Analysis

In what has become a competitive first-round playoff series in the Eastern Conference, the Atlanta Hawks hope to use their home court to regain an edge against the Boston Celtics in Game 5 on Tuesday.

The Hawks are listed as consensus seven-point favorites over the Celtics at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark.

Boston won Game 4 in overtime 104-95 on Sunday, covering the spread as a one-point home underdog and overcoming a monster 45-point performance from Atlanta power forward Paul Millsap, who connected on 19 of 31 shots from the field and also grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.

The Celtics had a much more balanced scoring attack with five players in double figures compared to just three for the Hawks, and they were led again by Isaiah Thomas with 28 points after he totaled a career-high 42 in Game 3.

Atlanta is a bigger favorite in Game 5 than either Game 1 or Game 2 at Philips Arena, as the team has failed to cover the spread in three of the first four overall. The lone cover for the Hawks came in Game 2 when they won 89-72 as 6.5-point favorites on the NBA betting lines.

Ironically, that was Millsap’s worst effort of the series, with only four points on 1-of-12 shooting and seven rebounds. In fact, he had a combined 26 points and 24 rebounds through the first three games before erupting for his career playoff high.

Thomas did not shoot well in the first two games at Atlanta, making 12 of 36 shots (33.3 percent) and averaging 21.5 points. His counterpart Jeff Teague scored exactly 23 points in Games 1 and 3 and 13 in Games 2 and 4, getting outplayed despite performing well down the stretch of the regular season.

Teague is due to break out and could be the star of Game 5 if he can shoot better and improve his defense on Thomas.

Even though Game 4 went to overtime, the under still cashed and moved to 3-1 in the series, according to the Odds Shark NBA Database. This is in stark contrast to the way the four regular-season matchups played out, with the over going 3-0 in the last three meetings, all wins and covers by the Hawks.