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The Miami Heat shoot to close out the Boston Celtics when the teams meet for Game 5 of their Eastern Conference finals series Friday night. Miami last made the NBA finals back in 2014, but now they're just one more win away. Can the Heat take care of business Friday night? Can Boston stay alive? And most importantly, how are we playing this game with our free NBA playoffs pick?
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Celtics -3.5/213 vs. Heat, 8:30 pm ET, ESPN<br />
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Miami leads this series three games to one, after taking Game 4 Wednesday night 112-109. The Heat led the Celtics 24-23 after one quarter, 50-44 at the half, and 58-46 early in the third. Miami then fell down by a point at 85-84 with just under nine minutes to go but immediately embarked upon an 11-2 run to regain control and held on from there for the outright victory as dogs of 3.5 points.
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The Heat have now won six games during these playoffs outright as underdogs on the NBA betting odds.
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Miami only shot 43 percent from the floor Wednesday, while Boston shot 48 percent. But the Heat also hit 24/27 from the free-throw line and won the turnover battle 19-8, resulting in a +8 points differential.
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Also, Wednesday's game played over its total of 212. So the overs are now 3-1 in this series
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With Wednesday's win, Miami is now 11-2 both SU and ATS in these playoffs.
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With Wednesday's loss, the Celtics are now 9-6 both SU and ATS in these playoffs.
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Also, Miami is now 4-3 both SU and ATS against Boston this season.
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<a href="https://www.sportsbettingstats.com/nba/matchup/1311658&quot; title="NBA Playoff Odds">NBA playoff betting odds </a>opened the Celtics at -2.5 for Friday night, then bumped that spread to -3.5 in the early betting action.
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On the injury front Heat F Bam Adebayo, who's averaging 22 points and 11 boards per game in this series, is dealing with a sore arm and wrist, and while he's likely to play Friday night, one wonders if his game might be affected.
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<span style="font-size:16px;"><b><span style="color:#008000;">Get more details:</span></b> <a class="advblue" href="https://www.sportsbettingstats.com/nba/matchup/1311658">Celtics vs. Heat Match-up Stats</a> </span>
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