Celts vs. Heat: Consistency is the key to cashing

Welcome back to a fresh week here! We head into the heart of these first-round playoff matchups for both the NBA and NHL, and we're staying sharp by touching 'em both on this fine-looking Monday.

Sticking with some steady props in Celtics-Heat

Three games into this Boston-Miami series, plus six total on the year, gives us a solid sample size in which to glean betting insights from.

As we looked to find who continues to step up, we ultimately landed on Bam Adebayo's scoring and Jaylen Brown on the glass.

Adebayo has finished with 24, 21 and 20 points this series and now averages 22.2 points per game in six meetings with the Celtics this season.

Brown has hauled in eight rebounds in all three games this series, four straight this season vs. the Heat, and five straight playoff meetings with Miami (averaging 8.4 rebounds/game in that five-game postseason stretch).

At this point, we're trusting what continues to deliver.

• Betting: Bam Adebayo over 19.5 points (-108 DraftKings)
• Betting: Jaylen Brown over 6.5 rebounds (-120 FanDuel)

Back the young star in Dallas

The Dallas Stars were able to grab a massive win in Vegas on Saturday night to make this a 2-1 series, and we saw them up their shot intensity big time.

It should be more of the same tonight, and the clear player to back is Dallas's 20-year old budding star, Wyatt Johnston.

Johnston was bumped up to the top line in advance of Game 3, and responded with eight shots and two goals, including the OT game winner.

Over the past two postseasons, Johnston has really loved shooting the puck in Vegas. In four games, Johnston has finished with six, four, five and eight SOG.

Expect another strong showing tonight, and we're getting quite a price on him hitting a reasonable threshold.

Betting: Wyatt Johnston 3+ shots (-122 FanDuel)

In the news ...

Knicks, Pacers go up 3-1; Mavs-Clippers and Magic-Cavs tied; Timberwolves advance — Both the Knicks and Pacers won on Sunday to go up 3-1 in their respective series over the Sixers and Bucks, and the two are that much closer to squaring off in the second round. Elsewhere, the Clippers briefly blew a big lead and got it back to knot their series against the Mavericks, and the home team has won all four games in Orlando-Cleveland. Minnesota took care of business on Sunday to sweep the Suns, and they'll await the winner of Nuggets-Lakers, with Denver up 3-1. Boston (-235) and New York (+425) are the current favorites to win the East, while the Nuggets (-110) and Thunder (+380) are favored from the West.

Rangers advance; Avs, Canucks, Oilers go up 3-1 — We aren't quite seeing too many tight and competitive NHL series to start this year's postseason. The New York Rangers swept Washington on Sunday, while Colorado, Vancouver and Edmonton all went up 3-1, joining Florida, Carolina and Boston who are also one game away from clinching their first-round matchups. The Canucks had a particularly impressive victory on Sunday, scoring two goals in the final two minutes, including with just nine seconds left, before netting the OT winner. It seems hard to imagine Nashville bounces back off that demoralizing loss, expect the Canucks to take it on Tuesday, you may want to jump on their -125 moneyline now. Carolina (+425), Florida (+500) and Edmonton (+500) are the current Cup favorites.

Today's Bark Bets is written by Griffin Carroll. Follow him on Substack: griffybets.substack.com.