Los Angeles Lakers vs Boston Celtics Prediction, 3/8/2025 Preview and Pick

Game: Los Angeles Lakers vs Boston Celtics

Date: Saturday, March 8, 2025

Location: TD Garden in Boston, MA

TV: NBC Sports Boston

TD Garden is the site where the Boston Celtics (44-18) will meet the Los Angeles Lakers (39-21) on Saturday.

The Lakers stepped onto the hardwood against the Pelicans and took home the win by a score of 136-115 in their last contest. Regarding fouls, the Lakers left the arena with 12 and the Pelicans accumulated 17 fouls. They buried 9 of their 34 attempts from 3-point range. New Orleans finished the contest at 66.7% from the free throw line by making 14 of 21 attempts. Additionally, New Orleans snagged 35 boards (10 offensive, 25 defensive) and earned 5 rejections. New Orleans dished out 29 dimes and had 11 steals for this game. In regard to the defense, Los Angeles allowed their opponent to shoot 49.5% from the floor on 46 of 93 shooting. They also dished out 32 assists in the matchup in addition to forcing the opposition into 9 turnovers and getting 7 steals. In the matter of grabbing boards, they collected a total of 51 with 17 of them being of the offensive sort. At the charity stripe, the Lakers made 21 of their 27 attempts for a rate of 77.8%. Los Angeles ended having earned a 53.3% field goal percentage (48 of 90) and knocked down 19 out of their 52 shots from beyond the arc.

LeBron James is someone who was a contributor for the matchup. He notched 34 points on 10 out of 18 shooting. He saw the court for 33 minutes and snagged 8 rebounds. James walked away from this one shooting 55.6% from the field and also dished out 6 assists.

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Los Angeles comes into this game with a win-loss mark of 39-21 this season. They currently have an average of 113.1 points per contest (17th in the NBA) while connecting on 48.2% from the field. The Lakers are shooting 35.5% on shots from beyond the arc (750 of 2,112) and 78.7% from the free throw line. As a unit, Los Angeles is collecting 42.6 boards per game and has tallied 1,584 dimes on the season, which ranks 20th in the league in terms of passing the rock. They are turning it over 13.9 times per game and as a unit they commit 16.6 fouls per contest.

On defense, the Lakers have forced 13.9 turnovers on a nightly basis and they draw 19.5 personal fouls. They currently rank 15th in the NBA in giving up assists to their opponents with 1,635 surrendered so far this season. The Lakers defense is allowing an opponent shooting percentage of 46.1% (2,475 of 5,372) and they concede 42.8 boards per contest as a squad. They are conceding 34.9% from 3-point land while they are 9th in the league in PPG allowed (111.2).

For their last game, the Celtics went home victorious with a score of 128-118 against the Trail Blazers. The Celtics were able to collect 34 defensive rebounds and 18 offensive rebounds for a total of 52 in the matchup. They also coughed it up 10 times, while earning 5 steals in the game. The Trail Blazers had 16 fouls for this game which took the Celtics to the charity stripe for a total of 17 tries. They were able to bury 15 of the free throw attempts for a percentage of 88.2%. With regard to 3-point shots, Boston made 23 of their 54 tries (42.6%). When the final whistle blew, the Celtics finished shooting 45 out of 97 from the floor which gave them a percentage of 46.4%. The Celtics permitted the Trail Blazers to make 45 of 90 attempts from the field which gave them a percentage of 50.0% in the game. They wrapped up this game 40.0% from downtown by shooting 16 out of 40 and finished the contest at 12 of 17 from the free throw line (70.6%). Concerning how they cleaned up the glass, Boston permitted Portland to pull down 39 overall (8 on the offensive side).

Payton Pritchard was important for the Celtics in the matchup. He converted 14 of 20 for the matchup giving him a field goal percentage of 70.0%, and totaled 10 rebounds. Pritchard tallied 43 points in his 43 mins of playing time and accumulated 5 dimes in this game.

Boston has a mark of 44-18 on the year. The Celtics commit 16.3 fouls per game and they go 79.7% from the free throw line. Their rate of assisting teammates is at 25.7 times per game (18th in the league) and they are turning it over 12.0 times per contest. Boston has earned 7,251 pts so far this season (117.0 per contest) and they grab 45.0 rebounds per contest. When it comes to offensive execution, the Celtics are hitting on 46.1% from the field, which ranks 18th in the league.

The Celtics are ranked 3rd in the league in points allowed per contest with 108.4. They have forced 13.0 turnovers on a nightly basis and have allowed teams to shoot 45.3% from the floor (4th in the league). The Boston defense gives up 34.7% on shots from beyond the arc (784 of 2,257) and opponents are making 79.2% of their foul shots. They have conceded 24.0 dimes and 44.1 rebounds per contest, which has them ranked 3rd and 15th in the league.

Who will win tonight's NBA game against the spread?

Josh Schonwald's Pick: Take Los Angeles

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