Cleveland Cavaliers vs Boston Celtics 11/30/18 NBA Odds, Preview and Prediction

The Cleveland Cavaliers travel to Boston on Friday to face the Celtics in a rematch of last season’s Eastern Conference Finals, for whatever that’s worth.

Depleted Cavs

Last season, these two teams went the full seven  game route to decide who would represent the Eastern Conference in the 2018 NBA Finals and the Cavs won that distinction behind the stellar postseason play of LeBron James. James is gone now, strutting his stuff in the City of Angels. Cleveland’s other All-Star, forward Kevin Love has played just 4 games this season after undergoing toe surgery. The result is a start where they look like they are tanking, well as far as former guard J.R. Smith thinks.

Cleveland is the worst scoring team in the league at 103.5 points per game scored and are second to the last in assists at 19.6 assists per game. Defensively, they aren’t as bad though as they rank 14th in the NBA in scoring defense at 110.4 points per game allowed and 22nd in rebounds at 43.8 rebounds per game.

Up And Down Season

The Boston Celtics were touted to take over the Eastern Conference with LeBron James going West but so far, it has been and up and down season for the men in green. The Celtics have gotten back last season’s injured All-Stars in Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward but while Irving has looked good, Hayward is still groping to return to form. With the two back this year, most of the role players who stepped up last season are back to their old roles.

The Celtics rank only 23rd in the league in team scoring at 107.1 points per game and they also rank 10th in assists at 24.4 helpers per night. On defense though, Boston is stout. The C’s rank 4th in the NBA in scoring defense, allowing just 104.3 points per game. They are 11th in the league in rebounding at 46.0 rebounds per game.

Who Wins?

These teams have played each other a total of 205 times during the regular season and the Celtics lead the series 125-80. However, Cleveland has won six out of the last eight meetings between these teams.

We’re seeing the Boston Celtics struggle to regain the form that took them to the Eastern Conference Finals last season. The Celtics are just 11-10 on the season and have split their last 8 games played. But the Celtics are playing a team that’s struggling more than they are this season.

The Cavs lost LeBron James to the Lakers then Kevin Love to a toe injury and so it’s not really surprising why they are 4-16 on the season. The Cavaliers have lost five out of their last seven games and enter this game with a 1-9 SU road record this season. Boston meanwhile is 5-3 SU at home so far this season and are 10-6 SU as betting favorites. The Cavs on the other hand are 3-14 SU as betting underdogs this season.

Any way you look at this game, you’re thinking of a mismatch and so am I. But remember this Cleveland team had back to back wins over the Sixers and Rockets earlier this month so you can’t really say no outright especially with Boston missing starters Al Horford and Jaylen Brown for this contest.

Other Bets To Make

The Cavs are 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games against the Atlantic Division. Cleveland is 35-17 in their last 52 games played on a Friday and are 3-7 ATS in their last 10 games played on one day rest. The Celtics are 20-7 ATS in their last 20 home games, 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games while playing on 3 or more days of rest and 4-9 ATS in their last 13 games overall. Head to head, Cleveland is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games against Boston but the Celtics are 4-2 ATS in their last 6 home games against the Cavaliers.

The total has gone under in 10 out of the last 13 games played by the Cavaliers and the under is 6-2 in Cleveland’s last eight road games. The total has gone over in four out of the last five games played by the Celtics. Head to head, the under is 5-2 in the last five games between the Cavs and Celtics and the total has gone under in five out of the last six games between these teams at the TD Garden.