Wednesday NBA betting: Big favorites on the board

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

While there were a few upsets in the playoff openers around the NBA, the three teams hosting Game 2s of their first-round series on Wednesday night all won their first games with relative ease.

Wednesday’s opener features the Eastern Conference fifth-seeded Indiana Pacers at the No. 4 Boston Celtics, who are 7.5-point favorites. The Pacers were outscored in just one quarter in Game 1, but it was a 26-8 doozy in the third as Boston rallied for the 84-74 victory. Those eight points were a franchise-record low for the Pacers in any playoff quarter, and their 74 points were the fewest in the postseason since April 27, 2013, in Atlanta. Indiana’s regular-season low this year was 89 points.

Just one Indiana starter scored in double digits: Bojan Bogdanovic with 12. Indiana shot just 33.3 percent overall, 6-for-27 from deep and even missed nine of 21 free throws. Not like Boston was too much better in hitting 36.4 percent from the field. Kyrie Irving and Marcus Morris each led with 20 points. The Celtics have covered 10 of their past 12 first-round playoff games.