Boston, MA

2024 NBA Finals Gambling Primer: Dallas Mavericks Vs. Boston Celtics

Published

2 years ago

June 6, 2024

2024 NBA Finals Gambling Primer: Dallas Mavericks Vs. Boston Celtics

Reluctantly, I’m here to discuss the 2024 NBA Finals between the Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics. I say “reluctantly” because I’ve gotten my teeth kicked in this season betting on the NBA. After going on a 15-game winning streak during the NBA Play-In Tournament and the first round of the playoffs, I’ve cooled off significantly.

My disgruntlement aside, it also feels like this Mavericks-Celtics is lacking juice. I mean, the biggest NBA story on the morning of Game 1 is the Los Angeles Lakers possibly giving Connecticut Huskies head coach Dan Hurley a blank check to be their next head coach. This is just another example of ESPN butchering its NBA coverage.

But, that’s neither here nor there. As a hoops betting junkie, I’ll be boozing and ordering Uber Eats for every 2024 NBA Finals game. Plus, I am interested in whether this is the beginning of a Boston dynasty or the Luka Dončić era. The Celtics have their dynamic duo, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, not even in their primes with the best supporting cast in the NBA. Luka will be the favorite to win the NBA MVP next season and, his co-pilot, Kyrie Irving, finally seems normal again.

Dallas Mavericks vs. Boston Celtics NBA Finals 2024

The odds are as of 1:30 p.m. ET Thursday, June 6th.

Series Odds (DraftKings)

Boston (-210)
Dallas (+175)

Series Spread (DraftKings)

Celtics -1.5 (+100)
Mavericks +2.5 (-120)

Money is pouring in on the Mavs to win the 2024 NBA Finals and it feels like “sucker money”. I get Dallas just beat three straight lower seeds in the Western Conference Playoffs and Boston has struggled to cover in its wins this postseason. However, the Celtics have been the favorite to win the title since trading for PG Jrue Holiday this offseason. They won 64 regular-season games and have lost two games in the playoffs.

With this in mind, I’ll invoke the handicapping angle of “Public ‘dogs get slaughtered”. Usually, when the public backs an underdog, it loses. Since the public loves betting favorites, it’s rare for sportsbooks to root for the better team on paper. Yet, that’s what we have in the 2024 NBA Finals. We witnessed Luka and Kyrie torch the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals and Boston “play with its food” in the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Celtics beat the Mavs in both regular-season meetings by an average score of 128.5-110.0. One win was pre-trade deadline, the other was afterward, and Dončić and Irving played in both. I mention the trade deadline because Dallas added two starting bigs to their team, C Daniel Gafford and PF P.J. Washington, Feb. 9th.

LISTEN: OutKick Bets Podcast’s 2024 NBA Finals Preview, Celtics-Mavericks Ft. David Troy

Nonetheless, following the trade deadline, Boston led the NBA in non-garbage time net rating (+14.8) and spread differential (+5.4), according to CleaningTheGlass.com. Whereas the Mavericks had a +15.8 adjusted net rating and a +2.0 spread differential.

Also, in their first meeting this season, Boston was on the second of a back-to-back and Dallas had four days’ rest. Regardless, the Celtics went on the road and beat the Mavs by nine. Boston All-Stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown crushed the Mavericks. Tatum averaged 35.5 points on 52.5% shooting and Brown put up 29.5 PPG on 57.1% shooting.

The Celtics host the Dallas Mavericks for Game 1 of the 2024 NBA Finals at TD Garden in Boston Thursday, June 6th. (Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images)

The biggest factor in my pro-Celtics handicap is the gap from Luka and Kyrie to Tatum and Brown is big enough to make up the edge Boston’s supporting cast has over Dallas’s. Let’s agree both tandems average 60+ PPG. Holiday and Boston SG Derrick White will outplay Washington, Gafford, and Mavericks SF Derrick Jones Jr. That’s not even factoring in the return of Celtics big Kristaps Porziņģis.

Finally, both teams chuck threes but the Celtics are the best 3-point shooting team in the NBA. This postseason, Boston is +3.0% in 3-point shooting and Dallas is +1.6%. Between their starting 5 and backup big Al Horford, the Celtics have six good 3-point shooters. While any Dallas possession that ends with a Washington, Gafford, or Jones contested shot is a good one for Boston’s defense.

Best Bet: Boston Celtics -1.5 NBA Finals spread (+100)

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2024 NBA Finals MVP Odds (FanDuel)

Jayson Tatum (-125)
Luka Dončić (+215)
Jaylen Brown (+700)
Kyrie Irving (+1800)
Kristaps Porziņģis (+3300)
Derrick White (+3500)
Jrue Holiday (+10000)
Al Horford (+37000)
Derrick Jones Jr. (+50000)
P.J. Washington (+50000)
Daniel Gafford (+50000)
Mavericks C Dereck Lively (+50000)

This is essentially a “value bet”. Considering Tatum is -125 to win the 2024 NBA Finals MVP, Brown’s +700 odds are disrespectful. Tatum isn’t that much better than Brown. He is only averaging one more PPG in these playoffs and Brown won the Eastern Conference Finals MVP. Since the Mavs don’t have two guys to guard Tatum and Brown, Dallas will have to pick its poison, so to speak.

Boston Celtics SF Jaylen Brown gets to the hoop on the Dallas Mavericks at TD Garden. (David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports)

Furthermore, Brown is shooting 54.1% from the field this postseason and Tatum is shooting just 44.2%. Brown’s ability to bully defenders gets him good looks inside the paint, and he is shooting 61.5% on twos. Lastly, Tatum is settling for too many threes and 29.0% from behind the arc in the playoffs. Brown will win the Bill Russell Award (NBA Finals MVP) if these shooting splits continue.

Bet: Boston Celtics wing Jaylen Brown (+700)

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Follow me on X (or Twitter, whatever) @Geoffery-Clark and check out my OutKick Bets Podcast for more betting content and random rants. I’ll add bets to my NBA 2023-24 betting record via X all season.

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Boston, MA

Red Sox lefty makes latest rehab start, close to forcing tough decision

Published

55 minutes ago

June 28, 2026

Press Room

Red Sox lefty makes latest rehab start, close to forcing tough decision

What are the Red Sox going to do with Patrick Sandoval?

The veteran left-hander has yet to appear in a big league game for the Red Sox, having missed his first season and a half with the organization while working his way back from Tommy John surgery. But after a deliberate ramp up throughout the spring and then an April setback Sandoval is now nearing a return to the big league roster.

Sandoval made the fifth start of his current rehab assignment Sunday for the WooSox, allowing one run over four innings on three hits, a walk and three strikeouts. He threw 60 pitches, a slight uptick from the 53 he threw over 3 1/3 innings his last time out on Tuesday.

Under MLB rules rehab assignments for a pitcher can last up to 30 days, which means there’s only enough time for Sandoval to make one more start before the Red Sox would have to either activate him or designate him for assignment. Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said Sandoval might make one more start in the minors, but he acknowledged a decision will have to be made soon.

“There’s still room to get the count built up some more,” Tracy said. “He got to 60 today and there’s probably room for another one to get it further and then we have to have a conversation after that.”

The Red Sox likely won’t want to lose Sandoval, but how he fits in roster-wise is tricky. The Red Sox starting rotation has been on a roll recently, and the most likely candidate to be optioned is rookie left-hander Jake Bennett, who has pitched brilliantly since coming up to fill Brayan Bello’s spot.

Boston could also insert Sandoval into the bullpen, but the Red Sox are likely about to get fellow left-hander Jovani Moran back off the injured list, and long reliever Ryan Watson can’t be optioned as a Rule 5 pick without being DFA’d himself.

Tracy said those will be issues the Red Sox will have to sort out, but noted that these sorts of logjams often have a way of working themselves out.

“Having depth is a good thing and it’s been tested for us, we had depth when Brayan went down and you know he’s down there and he’s got a specific purpose and mind of trying to get it right, well we’re kind of out of starting depth,” Tracy said. “So getting Sandy helps us in that way, but what we’re going to do yet we haven’t gotten that deep into it but obviously it’s looming.”

Extra innings

Left-hander Jovani Moran (left elbow inflammation) made his second rehab appearance for the WooSox on Sunday, retiring all six batters he faced on just 14 pitches over two perfect innings. Tracy said the club hasn’t decided if Moran will need another rehab outing before he’s activated. … Tracy said shortstop Trevor Story (sports hernia) is continuing to make progress but likely won’t start a rehab assignment before the All-Star break. … Right-hander Kutter Crawford (right wrist surgery recovery) is in the early stages of his throwing program in Fort Myers but remains a long way off from a return.

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Boston, MA

Police: Man killed in crash caused by wrong-way driver on I-93 in Boston – Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News

Published

11 hours ago

June 28, 2026

Press Room

Police: Man killed in crash caused by wrong-way driver on I-93 in Boston – Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News

BOSTON (WHDH) – A 20-year-old man is dead, and an 81-year-old man will face criminal charges following a wrong-way crash on Interstate 93 in Boston late Saturday night, officials said.

Troopers responding to a reported multi-vehicle crash on Route 93 northbound before Exit 15A around 11:45 p.m. determined a driver in a 2004 Cadillac Escalade got on the highway in the wrong direction and nearly struck two vehicles — a Honda Odyssey and an Audi A4 — causing both to swerve and crash into each other, according to state police.

The occupants of the Honda Odyssey, a family of four, were transported to a Boston-area hospital for evaluation.

Shortly after the initial crash, the wrong-way driver, later identified as Antone Carvalho, of Somerset, collided head-on with a Chevrolet Cruze.

The driver of the Chevrolet Cruze, a man in his 20s from Haverhill, died from his injuries. His name has not been released.

Carvalho will be issued a summons to appear in court at a later date.

This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

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Boston, MA

Beyond the frame: ‘Where’s Boston?’ revisited through new oral histories – Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News

Published

21 hours ago

June 27, 2026

Press Room

Beyond the frame: ‘Where’s Boston?’ revisited through new oral histories – Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News

BOSTON (WHDH) – It’s the fall of 1974 in South Boston, and four generations of the Moran family are rushing to church for baby Lila’s baptism. The moment is filled with great anticipation, and one of the most memorable images frozen in time in Constantine Manos’s “Where’s Boston” series.

Now, more than 50 years later, that photograph has taken on a new meaning.

The Boston Athenaeum has revived the landmark exhibition first shown during Boston’s Bicentennial celebration in 1976. To mark America’s 250th anniversary, the library has paired Manos’s photographs with 12 newly recorded oral histories, giving the people captured in the images a chance to tell the stories behind them.

“These images show one moment in time, but when you talk to someone and ask them to reflect on it, you learn so much more about them and their larger family history,” said Boston Athenaeum curator Lauren Graves. “Then somehow that history, too, ends up relating to a larger Boston history.”

In their oral history, George and Carolyn Moran reflected on the social upheaval surrounding Boston’s bussing crisis, when court-ordered school integration sparked intense racial conflict across the city.

While the baptism photograph captures a day of celebration, the Moran family said it also stirs memories of another pivotal moment: their decision to leave the South Boston neighborhood they had long called home.

“Around the corner came a huge swarm of people being chased by police on horseback with clubs,” George Moran said. “Apparently earlier that day there had been a stabbing around the corner of South Boston High School, and the town was in total turmoil over that incident.”

Fearing for their children’s safety as tensions escalated, the two Boston Public Schools teachers made the difficult decision to move their family to Brookline.

“We were very careful in making our decision because we did have a strong allegiance to the schools and to education,” Carolyn Moran said. “I would say our concerns about the education of our daughters was our primary reason for making the move.”

Courtesy Boston Athenaeum

Many of Manos’s seemingly innocuous photographs reveal the city’s deeply segregated spaces that shaped Boston a half-century ago. An Italian religious process in the North End, young Black men unwinding at Franklin park, and a father looking lovingly at his son at a Chassidic center in Brookline each offer a glimpse into communities that rarely intersected.

But even amid turmoil and division, Manos found beauty in life’s small moments—a bride leaving a church on her wedding day, a young man absorbed in a game of chess, and a father flying a kite with his son.

Courtesy Boston Athenaeum

“The exhibit shows some of the terrible times of protest, but it also shows the moments of joy,” Carolyn Moran said. “They’re all juxtaposed, and that’s life—these difficult times as well as beautiful times.”

As the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary, curators hope the exhibition encourages visitors to reflect on not just how far the city has come, but also the work that still needs to be done in the coming decades.

“We thought this was a unique moment to look back at the Bicentennial, to look back 50 years and think about this recent past,” Graves said. “What do we want for Boston today? What do we want for the future? And what do we want for the future of the country itself?”

Visitors are also invited to become part of the exhibition by filling out comment cards reflecting on where Boston is today.

The Boston Athenaeum says it is still identifying people featured in Manos’s photographs and plans to continue expanding the exhibition’s online oral history collection.

“Where’s Boston” is open until December 12.

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