A potential Eastern Conference finals preview headlines Wednesday's NBA action as the Cavaliers face the Celtics for the final time in the regular season, with host Boston -8.5 on WagerWeb.com.
Cleveland comes in off a tough loss at Milwaukee on Tuesday night when the Bucks' Michael Redd hit a long 3-pointer at the buzzer for the victory despite 35 points from LeBron James; James leads the league in averaging 30.2 ppg.
LeBron, the likely MVP favorite now, has averaged 35.4 points on 51.2 percent shooting in his last nine games vs. Boston.
Tuesday's loss was the Cavs' first in three games since acquiring Ben Wallace, Joe Smith, Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West at last week's trade deadline.
With that new foursome, it may make the season's previous three matchups with Boston a little irrelevant. The Cavs have already beaten the Celtics twice this season in Cleveland, but in their lone appearance in Boston, they lost by 10 points on a night they played without James.
Speaking of LeBron, he needs 19 points tonight (a lock) to reach 10,000 for his career - a feat that, at age 23, would make him the youngest player in NBA history and ninth-fastest player overall to score 10,000.
Cleveland was playing Tuesday without starting center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who sat out because of an upper respiratory infection. Anderson Varejao started in place of Ilgauskas, but picked up his third foul with just over four minutes remaining in the second quarter. Varejao finished with six points, six rebounds and five fouls in 25:28.
Ilgauskas traveled with the team to Boston but is questionable tonight; Varejao likely would get another start if he can't go.
The game will kick off a five-game homestand for the Celtics, who won the last two games of a five-game road trip against Western Conference teams after suffering their first-three game losing streak of the season."Those first three games, I don't want to say it was the (All-Star) break, but it was kind of sloppy," Paul Pierce said. "But the last two games we turned it around, and hopefully we can carry it over.
And the Celtics figure to benefit in facing a Cleveland team that will be playing its third game in four nights.
"It's a big game for us and a big game for Cleveland," Celts coach Doc Rivers said. "They have a bunch of new guys, and they've had the best (of the Celtics). They've owned us so far. They're up, 2-1. We've got to come in and put a good effort in. It's a tough game, flying back and playing in that game, but we have to be ready."
Boston is an Eastern Conference-best 23-4 at home while outscoring opponents by an average of 15.7 points in those victories. They have won five in a row at home with Pierce averaging 23.8 points during that span.
Pierce, though, was erratic during the road trip despite finishing the five-game stretch averaging 20.4 points. The Celtics' leader with 20.6 points per game, Pierce had one of his worst shooting performances in Friday's loss to Phoenix, going 2-for-13 for eight points. He responded to that by scoring 30 points against the Trail Blazers before putting up 17 at Los Angeles.
Pierce hasn't been very consistent against the Cavaliers, averaging 14.0 points in three meetings this season.
The Celtics have lost nine of their last 11 meetings with Cleveland, with both wins coming at home.
| ATS | Cleveland | Boston |
| Record: | 32-25-0 (.561) | 43-12-0 (.782) |
| As Favorite: | 21-11-0 (.656) | 39-9-0 (.813) |
| As Underdog: | 11-14-0 (.440) | 4-3-0 (.571) |
| At Home: | 17-10-0 (.630) | 23-4-0 (.852) |
| On Road: | 15-15-0 (.500) | 20-8-0 (.714) |
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