well...first lemme say im glad u opened this can of worms on a night where the nfl has MNF..........
because there are many people who bet sports who either ignore the fact that fixes are possible or occur (and utterly POO POO or shun the discussion to the point where u have to sift thru a thread full of name calling, and stuff that detracts from the conversation) or people who belive fixes happen, but cant identify the fishy stuff when they see it.
Be4 i continue , let me say....dont give me credit for finding a fix..i dont want that responsibility...just cause i say its fixed doesnt make it so.....u will have 30 guys with between 23 and 14,000 posts come in here and say i start this bullshit all the time.
Heres what i will say about the nba. I can prove this game is a fix by using what i have seen in other games that defy basketball reasonable probability....
IE how many times have i seen teams down 6-7 pts in the 4th qtr with under 1 minute left and refuse to foul, and decide to play str8 upd efense?
See if it werent for games like that, i could dismiss the late flurry of points in this game as something that merely happened.....
But to see teams who actually are still in the game refuse to foul in a sport where fouls occur when one team leads by 16 and fouls occur arbitrarily, and sometimes on purpose in the final 2 minutes... I played this game from the age of 3, till iw as a junior in college. Theres strategy involved just like killing the clock with a spike in football. So when a team refuses to fould down 7 points in a the final minute of a game, u start to see things like guys looking at the refs for DIRECTION, taking their cues from things that dont make much logical sense. Mostly because they ARE BAD ACTORS!!!!!!They play hoops for a living , not act.
Now certain things cant be faked, like guys making ridiculous shots to hit overs, or push games to OT...i dont assert every game is fixed. I simply belive that there are set rules for end game scenarios, and in close games they should be adhered to. These coaches and players have been at this forever, so when they consciously decide NOT TO FOUL DOWN 6 WITH 27 SECONDS LEFT, or a ref ignores a blatant rebounding foul.....IT MAKES ME WONDER WHY IN A 16 POINT GAME ON A SWITCH OF POSSESSION WHERE THE BALL IS REBOUNDED CLEANLY and the leading team gets the ball with 1 minute left, would a referee call a loose ball foul on the losing team that is now headed down court?
After all, they ignore this foul and "let them play" many other times in tightly contested battles.....why is it critical to now make this foul call when it is inconsequential to the games result and no one has tumbled to the floor? the rebounding team is gonna slowly walk the ball up and eat 24 seconds.....
ever wonder why sometimes teams actually hold the ball at end of game and simply take the 24 sec violation rather than shoot at the end of a blowout? Other times, both teams will go up and down the court 3 times during that 24 second period in a blowout....
The theory is also to end the game and not get any body hurt, whys top the action when noone is even crowing for a foul call?You can easily not call a loose ball foul in the final 1 minute of a game, when a meaningless 3 is taken.....its almost like calling it is a proactive move that needs to be taken by the ref, because its udnerstood amongst players and coaches, that THEY WOULD RATHER THIS FOUL GO UNCALLED TO SPEED THEIR ABILITY TO GET OFF THE COURT.......LITERALLY WE HAVE ALLL SEEN THIS HAPPEN.....
its very hard to prove a negative, IE that something does not exist, however in the case of over/unders , i 100% that during end game scenarios once the outcome has been decided this final 4-5 mins reveals the games agenda.
As for your question, nationally televised games, or small cards like this one where celts/magic is clearly the spotlight game are usually targets for fixes that i try to identify. Obviously the newby move for a game where total is this low is to take the over......but we all know the sharp play when the line is low is to go even lower, and take the under....however boston plays like 3 games a week on national spotlight games, so the sharp play has become taking the over in their games?
Who knows.....i IDentified it a fix because i felt like most people felt the side was in doubt, but with bostons defense, and howard shot blocking, everyone thought the under was a foregone conclusion....even thought the total shoulda been 182-185.....so posting the line high gave them extra confidence...all this made me think over......
i find a reason to think theres a fix in the Nba just about 3 -4 times a week, usually on wednesday thrusday and friday nights.......Im sure ill be wrong again soon...and when i call it a fix...there will be a 100 naysayers here to call me amoron
theres a very long answer to ur simple question, but my life is worthless, so i had nothing better to do than pontificate about fixes...hope u enjoyed if uw ere able to stomach this explanation