Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Boston Celtics Preview
Where: Staples Center, Los Angeles
When: Sunday, March 19, 2017, 9:30 PM ET
Line: Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Boston Celtics – view all NBA lines
TV Broadcast: NBATV
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Betting on the Cleveland Cavaliers (45-23)
There would be no rests tonight for the Cavs’ Big Three. After sitting out last night’s contest against Clippers, LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love are expected to be suiting up against the Lakers.
That’s a nice horror story to tell the Lakers, who tasted the wrath of the trio the last time two teams faced. Love scored 27 points and grabbed 17 rebounds in Cleveland’s 119-108 win at home against the Lakers on Dec. 17, while James had 26 points with seven boards and nine assists. For his part, Irving racked up 21 points to go with 12 dimes.
The Lakers are showing no interest in playing defense right now and the Cavs could easily capitalize on that with all the offensive weapons they have now. The Cavs are fourth in the league in scoring, as they average 110.7 points per game.
Cleveland is particularly deadly from beyond the arc. The team nails 13.2 threes per game, second best in the NBA, and will be facing the Lakers’ lackluster perimeter defense that gives up 10.1 threes per contest.
Cleveland is 3-0 SU and 2-1 ATS in its last three road games against the Lakers dating back to 2014.
Betting on the Los Angeles Lakers (20-49)
Losses continue to pile up for the Lakers, who are winless in their last four games. That stretch includes a 107-103 defeat at home against the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday.
There are so many aspects in which the Lakers are bad right now but it’s their defense that is arguably the worst, especially of late. The Lakers appear to be not interested in playing D over the last five games, wherein they’ve allowed opponents to score 120.6 points on 51.1 shooting percentage from the field. Going lazy defensively later tonight against Cleveland is suicide for the Lakers and it’ll be up to head coach Luke Walton how he’ll motivate his team into playing better on defense.
Walton don’t need to worry about cajoling the Lakers to play aggressively on offense. The Lakers are taking 91.6 shots per game over their last five games—third most in the NBA during the same number of games and span—while averaging 108.4 points.
Brandon Ingram has been playing well of late. The rookie is averaging just 8.7 PPG on the season, but has put up 13.8 on 51.0% shooting the past four outings. Nick Young, meanwhile, will look to recreate his 32-point performance in last December’s loss to Cleveland.
The Lakers are 5-3 ATS in their last eight games against Cleveland.
Writer’s Prediction
Cleveland wins, but Lakers cover.
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