The Miami Heat haven’t won an Eastern Conference title since 2014. They’ve done consistently well in their division, but winning the conference has eluded them, as has an NBA Championship, which they last won in 2013. This year, things are looking up for the team and it’s now just one game away from taking the East, with three games left in the best-of-seven series. They handed the Boston Celtics another defeat last night to take a 3-1 lead, and are closer than ever to an NBA Finals appearance. 

Last night’s game was poised to be a tight match from start to finish, and the Celtics were favored to win. The team’s ringer, Gordon Hayward, was out for the first two games due to injury, but was able to come back in Game 3 – the game that put the Celtics on the board. He wasn’t at 100% for the last game, but his presence was seen as enough to motivate Boston to grab the victory. Hayward was expected to bring much of that same fire last night, but he wasn’t able to find his rhythm. In the first half, he and Marcus Smart, another go-to man for the Celtics, went 3-for-12 – combined. 

The Heat kept the pressure on in the first half and moved up by 12 in the third quarter, seemingly a sign of the eventual win. However, Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, who had a goose egg in the first half, woke up and tried to put his team back in the game. He scored 28 points in the second half and brought the Celtics to within just a point as the game entered the final quarter. Boston would move ahead by a point a little more than halfway through the quarter thanks to a hook-up between Jaylen Brown and Daniel Theis, but it was, by this point, too little too late. 

The star for the Heat was someone that many didn’t think needed additional coverage. Tyle Herro scored 37 points, 17 of which came in the fourth quarter, to be Miami’s star. The rookie guard was picked by Miami in the first round of the 2019 draft, and he was on fire last night. Even Celtics coach Brad Stevens was mesmerized with his abilities, saying after the game, “Herro’s shot-making tonight was the difference in the game. Herro was ridiculously good tonight. The rim must have looked like the ocean to him.”

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No team has ever rallied from down 3-0 to win an NBA playoff series. Then again, the Denver Nuggets have rallied from two 3-1 series deficits in this postseason. They trail the Los Angeles Lakers 2-0 entering Tuesday’s Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals from the Orlando bubble with Los Angeles opening as a 6.5-point favorite.

While Denver wasn’t all that competitive in Game 1 – perhaps a bit gassed after back-to-back seven-game series – the Nuggets were in position to win Game 2 on Sunday. Nikola Jokic was fantastic and scored his team’s final 12 points, including a 10-footer with 20.8 seconds left to give the Nuggets a 103-102 lead. However, Anthony Davis hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer off an inbounds play to give the Lakers a memorable 105-103 win.

That’s a shot the Nuggets would be happy with in normal circumstances because Davis hasn’t been a particularly good shooter from deep this year. It was his second career game-winning buzzer-beater and first in the playoffs. It was the first Lakers game-winning buzzer-beater in the playoffs since Metta World Peace (Ron Artest) in 2010.

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The Los Angeles Clippers franchise has never reached the NBA’s Western Conference Finals. With offseason additions in All-Stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, this was supposed to be the best Clippers team ever. Yet, they could be on the verge of coming up short of the West Finals again as Los Angeles has been forced into a Game 7 of the conference semifinals against the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday (9 p.m. ET) from the Orlando bubble. Los Angeles is a 7-point favorite but is 1-4 ATS in the past five meetings.

The Clippers frankly would be called chokers if they lose this game and series because they blew double-digit leads in both Games 5 and 6. The Nuggets stayed alive with a 111-98 victory on Sunday despite trailing by 19 points with 22 minutes remaining. Denver center Nikola Jokic was easily the best player on the floor with 34 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists. Jamal Murray had 21 points.

Denver is looking to become the first team in NBA history to rally from a pair of 3-1 deficits in the same postseason. The Nuggets did so in Round 1 against Utah. Dating back to the 2019 postseason, the Nuggets are the first team in NBA history to play a Game 7 in four straight series. Tuesday’s winner will be a series underdog in the West Finals against the well-rested Los Angeles Lakers. That series would start Friday.

The NBA Bubble at Disney World in Orlando, Florida has worked more efficiently and safely than most major corporations around the world. That says a lot, given the limited amount of time the league had to put everything together. With the playoffs now underway and Round 2 beginning, there is a lot to look forward to, and sports gambling fans haven’t been wasting any time grabbing a piece of the action. Yet again, NBA wagers are on top at the Bodog sportsbook, but MLB is right on its heels. 

This past weekend, Bodog saw 34.76% of its wagers targeting NBA games, with MLB wagers only a little behind at 34.35%. There were a couple more basketball games on tap for the weekend after teams boycotted last week following another police-involved shooting of an unarmed man, which forced a couple of games to be shifted to the weekend. Had it not been for that, it’s possible that MLB wagers would have unseated the NBA from its first-place position on the charts. 

The NHL, which is now running the Stanley Cup playoffs, was on the list, as well, but only captured 7.66% of the bets. This will most likely change now that the race for the championship is much deeper, and the hockey league should grab more of the action next weekend. Included among the top ten targets for sports gamblers on Bodog this past weekend, the Ultimate Fighting Championship grabbed 5.1% of the action, the PGA Tour’s BMC Championship saw 4.12% and, a little surprisingly, table tennis jumped into sixth place, receiving 3.51%. Sports gambling fans also put down some money on WNBA games, NFL 2020 Sims, the ATP Tour and, with just 2.2% of the wagers, MLS. 

Despite the fact that the NBA and MLB were neck-and-neck in the race for wagers on Bodog this weekend, individual NBA games captured all top ten spots in terms of individual contest wagers, except one. In sixth place, the BMW Championship accounted for 9.33% of the action, thanks to an awesome battle between Jon Rahm and Dustin Johnson. Both golf pros were on fire, sinking a number of shots that almost seemed impossible, including a 66-footer by Rahm that took almost a 90-degree turn into the cup. That was on the 18th hole, and followed a 45-foot birdie by Johnson that forced a playoff between the two. Rahm would go on to win, bouncing back from six-over-par after two rounds. That gave him bragging rights for the best 36-hole recovery leading to a championship in 40 years. 

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One small benefit of the coronavirus pandemic shutting down the NBA for around four months? Playoff basketball in September for the first time. Tuesday is the first day of September and there are two postseason games on the schedule from the ESPN World Wide of Sports Complex in the Orlando bubble.

The first game at 5:30 p.m. ET is the Eastern Conference third-seeded Boston Celtics as 1.5-point underdogs against the No. 2 Toronto Raptors in Game 2 of their conference semifinal series. Interesting line considering Boston largely dominated Game 1 in a 112-94 victory Sunday to improve to 4-1 against the Raptors this season.

Boston’s Jayson Tatum had 21 points and nine rebounds and Kemba Walker 18 points and 10 assists, but those two stars are expected to play well. The Celtics also got surprising contributions from Daniel Theis (13 points, 15 rebounds), Marcus Smart (21 points, six rebounds) and Robert Williams III (10 points, five rebounds in only 19 minutes off the bench).

Inarguably, the NBA reboot at Disney World in Orlando, Florida will go down as one of the most exciting times in the history of professional basketball, and the postseason is bringing much more of the same thrilling action. Basketball fans are loving it, the league is showing its skills at managing adversity and sportsbooks are seeing a huge turnout. Global sports gambling portal Bodog continues to attract a lot of action in many sports, but the NBA is indisputably leading the way. The statistics from this past weekend show exactly how important major sports are to sportsbooks everywhere. 

From August 21 to 23, 53.16% of the action on Bodog was on NBA games. This isn’t only because there were a lot of games on tap, but also because the games that were played in Round 1 of the playoffs were destined to be awesome – and they didn’t disappoint. From rookies setting new records to clutch baskets as time was winding down, basketball this weekend was on fire. 

While the NBA took the most bets as a league, MLB was up there, as well. It accounted for 22.36% of the wagers placed, with the NHL following in third place with 6.22%. Almost no sport was left out, though, as the UEFA Champions League, Ultimate Fighter Championship, PGA and tennis also captured a piece of the action. Even ping pong is still finding a home with sports gamblers, receiving 1.67% of the bets on Bodog this past weekend. With so many options now available, compared to what was seen just a few short months ago, sportsbooks and gamblers both are staying busy almost around the clock. 

As far as individual sports events, Saturday’s NBA game between the LA Lakers and the Portland Trail Blazers saw more action than the others, receiving 12.4% of the bets on Bodog. After dropping Game 1 to the Trail Blazers, the Lakers bounced back in Game 2 and followed that up with Saturday’s win to move ahead 2-1 in the series. That game was an important step in the Lakers’ attempt at capturing a title this year, and they pushed things even further with a spectacular win again last night.

Basketball fans around the world suffered through months of withdrawal after the NBA season was halted due to the coronavirus. The delays, to some degree, were worth it, as the NBA Bubble in at Disney World in Orlando, Florida has brought non-stop excitement and more than a few remarkable achievements. As the league moved into the postseason, the action has only become more thrilling and it’s looking like the NBA Finals are going to be hotter than they’ve been in years. Of course, as some teams move up, others have to move down, and there are a lot of changes that will be seen in the offseason. As the sports world analyzes who’s coming and who’s going, global sportsbook Bodog is giving sports gambling fans a lot to look forward to. 

The Boston Celtics swept the Philadelphia 76ers in the postseason, eliminating the Sixers from championship contention. Not able to provide a solid performance in the best-of-seven series, Philadelphia is likely to see several changes at both the coach and player levels. Coach Brett Brown is expected to be looking for a new home after seven years with the team. During that time, he was able to lead the Sixers to three consecutive playoff appearances, but was stopped short of making a deep run. If he leaves, the former head coach of the Brooklyn Nets, Kenny Atkinson, who was fired this past March, is one of the most likely candidates to be his replacement and is currently getting +500 on Bodog. Sam Cassell, the assistant coach of the LA Clippers, is close behind at +600. The Clippers are currently in Round 1 of the playoffs against the Dallas Mavericks, each with two wins, and part of that can be attributed to Cassell. He’s been with the Clippers since 2014, so it might be his time. 

Point guard Ben Simmons has been with the Sixers since 2016, the year he was picked first in Round 1 of the NBA Draft. However, he hasn’t been able to play in any of the postseason games this year due to arthroscopic surgery he was forced to undergo a few months ago. Still, the Sixers aren’t likely to give up their Australian big man and will look to him to help the team rebound next year. That’s why Bodog gives him -240 to still be with the team, while giving him only slight consideration for a move, possibly to the Phoenix Suns (+350) or the Chicago Bulls (+1200). 

Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid could be seen elsewhere next season, but it wouldn’t be by choice. The 7’ 26-year-old center wants to stay with the team he’s played with for the past six years, but is smart enough to know that it may not be up to him. He told reporters after his team was eliminated from the playoffs, “I don’t make the decisions. I’m here in Philly. Whatever happens, happens. I’ve always said that I want to end my career here, and if it happens, good. If it doesn’t happen, well, you move on and all that stuff.”