Home-court advantage is a real thing in the NBA playoffs, and 74 percent of the series have tilted in favor of the higher-ranked team. Someone should tell that to the underdogs in the conference semifinal rounds.
Through Tuesday’s action, home teams are 0-5 in the playoffs, and not a single favored team has won a second-round playoff game. The chances of this continuing aren’t quite as high as hitting the lottery, and there’s less than a 0.4 percent chance this will occur.
Which leads us to tonight’s game featuring the New York Knicks heading north to face the Boston Celtics. The Knicks pulled off perhaps the most-shocking victory thus far, coming back from 20 points to score a 108-105 overtime victory over the Eastern Conference foe.
Can Boston end this streak of home teams dropping their postseason playoff games? We’ll cover that and provide bettors with our three favorite player prop bets from this Eastern Conference semifinal matchup.
Live player props data coming soon for Jayson Tatum.
Boston Celtics SF Jayson Tatum OVER 27.5 Points
Celtics star Jayson Tatum has had better showings than his performance in Monday’s series opener. The 6-foot-8 forward made just over 30 percent of his shots, leading to his 23-point finish in Game 1.
You’d have to go back to March 2nd to find a contest where he finished below 30 percent from the field. Expect him to light up the scoreboard on Wednesday in a strong performance, finishing the contest with at least 28 points to cover this scoring prop bet.
| Player | Prop | Price |
|---|
| Karl-Anthony Towns | Over 31.5 Points/Rebounds | |
| Karl-Anthony Towns | Under 32.5 Points/Rebounds | |
New York Knicks C Karl-Anthony Towns OVER 29.5 Pts + Rebs
New York went all in for Karl-Anthony Towns during the offseason, believing that the center was the missing link preventing them from making a deep postseason run. Towns had one of his best regular season runs with the Knicks, finishing in the top 12 in both scoring (24.4 points) and rebounding (12.8 boards) in 2024-2025.
His first game against the Celtics wasn’t quite as strong, finishing with 27 combined points and rebounds. Bettors should expect he’ll rebound – no pun intended – from that first-game performance and finish with at least 29 total points and boards on Wednesday night.
Live player props data coming soon for Kristaps Porzingis.
Boston Celtics C Kristaps Porzingis UNDER 6.5 Rebounds
Veteran center Kristaps Porzingis has not been a model of health during his career in the NBA, having missed 16 or more games every year since his rookie season. He’s been dealing with another illness this year, preventing him from making an impact during his team’s series-opening loss.
After the Game 1 collapse, head coach Joe Mazzulla revealed that he’s had lingering effects of his upper respiratory illness since mid-March. He’s listed as a probable for Game 2, and bettors should take the under on this rebound prop bet as he’ll likely play sparingly on Wednesday.
Best Bet: OVER 210.5 Points
During the postseason, we’ve been burned taking the favorite multiple times. Yes, the Celtics SHOULD come back angry after their series-opening collapse and beat the Knicks by at least 11 points in Game 2, but we’re not offering that as our best bet.
The total points wager looks more ideal. Boston and New York have met five times this year, and every game has finished above the 212-point threshold oddsmakers have installed. The chances of it occurring in Wednesday’s game are solid enough to make this our best bet.
