Cleveland (0-1) at Boston (1-0)
When: Thursday, May 9th 2024
Where: TD Garden,
Boston, MA
Time: 7:00 ET | TV: TNT
Opening Odds: Boston -13/213.5
The Cleveland Cavaliers came off a grueling seven-game series win over the Orlando Magic and were no match for the rested Boston Celtics in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series on Tuesday night. Boston was in total control throughout in the 120-95 win at TD Garden. Oddsmakers have taken note and have bumped up the Celtics to 13.5-point favorites in Thursday’s Game 2. The Celtics completed dominated the paint and no starter played more than 35 minutes, so chances are they’ll be fresh for Game 2.
The home team has won each of the last seven meetings and the odds are really stacked against the Cavs now. Boston is now a -5000 favorite to win the series, so you might want to look at how many games it goes. A sweep has become the most likely outcome (+120), closely followed by Celtics in five (+150). If you think the Cavaliers came win two games, then you’ll get +650. Cleveland winning the series is +1600 and the Cavs winning in seven is an unbelievable +5000.
CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
There’s still plenty of time left for Cleveland to make adjustments and get back in the series, but they must start nailing their three-pointers. The Cavs shot just 26.2 percent on Tuesday (11-for-42). Cleveland was good offensively from the start, scoring 34 first quarter points, but Boston recorded 40. The Cavs’ defense limited Boston to just 19 points in the second quarter but Cleveland could only muster 15. Donovan Mitchell led the team with 33 points and the next closest was Evan Mobley (17). Darius Garland had an off game with just 16 points on 6-of-15 shooting, while Isaac Okoro contributed 11.
BOSTON CELTICS
Boston has been known to take their foot off the peddle after a playoff blowout win. Last year in Round 1, they lost Game 5 at home and needed six games to put away Atlanta. They then lost Game 1 of the second round series of Round 2 against Philly. In this postseason, Boston destroyed Miami in Game 1 of the first round then lost the next game as 14-point favorites. on Tuesday, Jaylen Brown led the way with 32 points on 12-of-18 shooting, while Derrick White netted 25 points. The team of Al Horford (eight boards, plus-15) and Luke Kornet (10 boards, plus-12) did a great job in replacing the injured Kristaps Porzingis.
Prediction:
Boston has been favored by 9.5 or more in every game this postseason and have covered the spread in all but one. That’s not easy to do. Boston is clearly the best team in the East and should win every game by double-digits if they try. However, they can get lazy and bored at times and this could be one of those instances. They keep raising the point spread with Boston and eventually it will be too high. I’ll take my chances with Cleveland in this one in hopes that Mitchell can keep it close.
Check out who Bobby Babowski has on his Free NBA Picks page for today.
