Cleveland (44-38) at Brooklyn (44-38)
When: Tuesday, April 12th, 2022
Where: Barclays Center,
Brooklyn, NY
Time: 7:00 ET | TV: ESPN
Opening Odds: Brooklyn -8/230.5
The Cleveland Cavaliers were not expected to compete this season for a postseason berth, but will be playing in one of the Eastern Conference’s play-in games on Tuesday night. The Cavaliers will visit the Brooklyn Nets, just a few days after losing at Barclays Center 118-107. The Nets outscored Cleveland 35-19 in the fourth quarter in that game and All-Star forward Kevin Durant led all scorers with 36 points. Cleveland ended the season on a 7-11 run but still finished with 22 more victories than a year ago. Brooklyn earned the No. 7 seed by virtue of winning their head-to-head season series 3-1. Cleveland ended the regular season by beating Milwaukee’s reserves 133-115.
The Nets held off the Indiana Pacers 134-126 on Sunday to earn the seventh seed. The Nets had four players with 20+ points, including former Cavs guard Kyrie Irving, who had a game-high 35 points. Brooklyn played to just a 20-21 record at Barclays Center this season and were a miserable 10-30-1 ATS there. The home team has won six of the last seven meetings between these two and five of the last seven have gone Over the total. The winner will advance to the first round of the playoffs against the No. 2 seed Boston Celtics next week. The loser will play Friday against the winner of Wednesday’s 9-10 play-in game between the Atlanta Hawks and Charlotte Hornets.
The Cavs were on their way to top four seed before stumbling down the stretch without star player Jarrett Allen. In Cleveland’s win over Milwaukee on Sunday, Kevin Love went off for 32 points and 10 rebounds, while going 8-of-11 from beyond the arc. Rajon Rondo had 13 assists in just his fourth game back from a month-long injury absence. Allen could return from a broken left middle finger after missing the last 18 games of the regular season. Allen had an intense workout before Sunday’s game and is no longer wearing a splint. In the Cavs’ lone win over Brooklyn this season, Allen had 14 points and 10 rebounds, while Darius Garland recorded 22 points and 12 assists. The Cavs are 26-10-2 against the spread in their last 38 games after covering the spread in the previous contest.
The Nets had hoped Ben Simmons would be mentally ready for the playoffs, but he has been ruled out for at least this game. Still, with Irving and Durant leading the offense, the Nets should be in good shape. Brooklyn is 7-3-1 against the spread in its last 10 games at home versus the Cavs, including the win Friday night. Irving and Bruce Brown each scored 18 points in that contest and the Nets outrebounded Cleveland 45-31. Andre Drummond had 12 boards, while Brown had 18. Durant shot the ball poorly, going 5-of-17 from the field and missed all six of his 3-point attempts. However, he still had a triple-double with 20 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high 16 assists.
Brooklyn should win this game by dominating the paint, but this Cleveland team is scrappy and have been playing above expectations all season. This is a lot of points for two teams with identical records.
Check out who Bobby Babowski has on his Free NBA Picks page for today.
Pick: Cavaliers +8.5
