Cleveland Cavaliers v Boston Celtics – NBA Betting Preview
It’s finally here, after a long wait the 2017/2018 season will begin with a highly entertaining match, where last year’s runner-up face against Boston Celtics, the most successful team in the NBA with a total of 17 titles. The offseason was full of changes to the teams, but for the sake of keeping this preview relatively short I won’t get into all the details, however, we will take a look at the most important information, that will be used for this prediction. These two teams met each other in last years semi-finals where Cavaliers won 4-1, this time with quite some changes to the rosters we can expect a different outcome.
Boston Celtics acquired Kyrie Irving from Cavaliers in exchange for Ante Zizic, Isaiah Thomas, and Jae Crowder. In addition to Kyrie, Celtics strengthened their squad with Jayson Tatum (3rd pick in the draft) and Hayward who was a free agent. Looking at their last 4 matches, Celtics managed to win them all: Hornets (94:82); (100:108), 76ers (102:110);(113:96). Sadly they lost against Dallas Mavericks in quarter-finals of Las Vegas Summer League (91:74).This season I expect them to get to the playoffs again, but Celtics need to first prove themselves today, as you only get 1 chance to start the season with a win.
Cleveland Cavaliers, a dominant team in the past few years will add 2 great veterans to their team; Dwyane Wade and Derrick Rose. Sadly their new addition Isaiah Thomas won’t be available to contribute to his new team for 2 months due to the hip injury. Another big blow is a questionable appearance of LeBron James, but I can’t imagine him not playing at least a few minutes in the opening match of the season. Still, he won’t be as effective as he could be if he wasn’t injured. Cavaliers have chosen a different approach this year, with Wade and Rose taking the 1st team spot instead of JR Smith and (traded) Irving. It’s reasonable to expect them to play slower this year with Love being moved to C position and addition to Crawford, who is a defender more than anything else. Despite the fact they do have a bit less of “firepower”, Cavaliers gained a lot in defensive aspect, so those changes are not considered bad in my eyes.
If you are waiting for a high scoring match you might be disappointed. Teams are stepping on the court for the first time this season and with all the changes, we can not expect them to go all out. Add the previously mentioned changes to Cavaliers who will be able to protect the basket much better I see this match to end with under 212 points in total.
Prediction: Under 212.50 points
Odds: 1.96
We will post another NBA betting preview shortly, in the meantime, you can check out our NBA Rookie of the Year 2017/18 betting preview: LINK
