NBA - 505 Philadelphia 76ers @ 506 Cleveland Cavaliers
Projected Line: 180 points
Kryie Irving is now out with a broken finger and these are horrible news for their offense. According to 82games.com, Cleveland with Irving has 109.5 points per 100 possessions, while without him, their offense goes down to 82.9 points! As we all know, Philadelphia has a great perimeter defense and on the last game between these two teams, last Sunday, Kyrie Irving was very well defended by Jrue Holiday, as he shot just 4-14 FG, while having 4 assists and 5 turnovers! Without an efficient Irving, Cleveland scored just 79 points and shot 35.7% FG! Without Kyrie Irviing, Jeremy Pargo will be the team's starting PG.
"Another guy who's very good on the defensive end, especially picking up guys full court,'' Scott said in explaining his decision. "He's a very good man-on-man defensive player, pretty good off the ball as well, one of our best communicators on the floor. I think that helps our guys on both ends of the floor."
"Offensively, I'm not asking him to do anything he can't do. I know he can run the show. I know he can push the tempo. I know he makes good decisions. If he has open shots, I want him to take them with confidence.
This decision of starting Jeremy Pargo was clearly done due to Pargo's defensive skills, as he isn't a good offensive PG. Without Irving, Cleveland has Dion Waiters, who will now have too much responsibility for a rookie on his first month in the league, plus Anderson Varejao in the paint! It's simply not enough for them to be effective! The good part of this game for Cleveland is that this is a bad spot for Philadelphia's offense, as they had Thaddeus Young playing for 39 minutes and Jrue Holiday 40 minutes in yesterday's home win against Toronto.
It's clear that Philadelphia is one of the team that struggles the most on offense in bad spots. This is due to the fact that they aren't aggressive, as they don't go to the free throw line a lot and they don't have a good inside game, so they depend a lot from their perimeter shots and with tired legs, they have less chances of scoring with effectiveness. I had already mentioned that last Sunday when I took the Under on the first game of this series:
"Fortunately for Cleveland, Philadelphia is one of the teams who has less attempts per game at the rim with just 22.7 FGA and so, this is a relief for Cleveland, who is allowing 79% FG at the rim!"
This was exactly what happened on that game, as Philadelphia shot just 14-21 FG at the rim, with a low volume, something that explains why Cleveland defended so well in that game. I expect the same to happen today and with this game turning once again into a low scoring affair. Therefore, I'll be taking the Under in here.
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 505/506 Under 183,5 @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker
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