Orlando (3-3) at Cleveland (3-3)
When: Sunday, May 5th 2024
Where: Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse,
Cleveland, OH
Time: 1:00 ET | TV: ABC
Opening Odds: Cleveland -3/198
In what many regarded as the least intriguing of all the first round matchups has turned out to be the only series to go the distance. The Orlando Magic and Cleveland Cavaliers meet in Game 7 on Sunday afternoon for the right to face the seemingly unstoppable Boston Celtics in round two. Cleveland comes into Sunday’s winner-take-all contest as a 3.5-point favorite with a total of 194.5.
The home team has won all six games thus far after Orlando forced a Game 7 with a 103-96 victory on Thursday night despite a 50-point outburst from Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell. The Cavaliers won exactly one more game than Orlando during the regular season, so they locked up the fourth seed at the all-important home court advantage. Orlando is now just 1-8 in their last nine trips to Cleveland, but they did manage to cover the 4.5-point spread in Game 5. In fact, the Magic have the 4-2 ATS spread in the series.
ORLANDO MAGIC
Orlando came through on Friday to set up its first Game 7 since the 2009 playoffs. Paolo Banchero led the way with 27 points and Franz Wagner added 26 as the fifth-seeded Magic overcame Mitchell’s huge night. The Magic were outshot 48 percent to 39 percent, but made 17 more free throws and four more 3-pointers than the Cavaliers. Jalen Suggs also had a nice game, scoring 22 points including six three-pointers. Shooting guard Gary Harris sat out Friday after sustaining a right hamstring injury in Game 5 and is questionable for Sunday.
CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
The Cavaliers managed just 18 points in the fourth quarter on Thursday and Mitchell scored every one of them. He was 7-of-13 shooting in the final quarter and 22-of-36 for the game despite playing through a knee injury. Darius Garland finished with 21 points, seven rebounds and five assists, while Max Strus was the only other double-digits scorer with 10. All-Star center Jarrett Allen sat out his second consecutive game due to a rib contusion. He averaged 17.0 points and 13.8 rebounds in the first four games of the series.
Prediction:
I’m going to stick with the home team trend in this one. Orlando has all kinds of trouble when playing in Cleveland and if Mitchell just gets a little more help, the Cavs should win this easily. I would love for Allen to play in this one and he still may. Either way, whoever wins is going to get killed in the next series against Boston.
Check out who Bobby Babowski has on his Free NBA Picks page for today.
