NBA - 501 Boston Celtics @ 502 Cleveland Cavaliers
Projected Line: 185 points
***DOUBLE DIME PLAY***
Boston is coming from a clear road loss at Detroit, where they had a terrible defensive game. The Pistons scored 18 fast break points and shot 9-15 FG on transitions. Detroit also dominated on the down low with Greg Monroe, they grabbed rebounds and they made easy cuts for the basket. while Will Bynum and Andre Drummond came from the bench to also crush the Celtics. Detroit had an early big lead, then blew the lead, just to crush Boston at the end once again. The only good thing that Boston did well was pressuring Detroit's ball handlers, as the Pistons committed 21 turnovers! Besides that, the Celtics's defense was terrible and their offense wasn't much better, with four of their starters having no free throw attempts. As they were down in the score, Boston tried to attack in transition and they had nice stats with 12-21 FG on this kind of plays. After the game, Coach Doc Rivers wasn't happy one bit about his team's performance:
"[The start of game] was awful, we are playing awful. I'm clear not doing my job with this team. And I'm serious, I'm not trying to take a bullet for the team. And I told them that. I said, ‘We got to find something where every night, all 12 guys play the same way.' We did it for three games in a stretch. I told them that games 4 and 5 in that [six-game] winning streak were garbage; We just won the game. I gotta figure that out. I told the guys that, I gotta figure it out. Because I don't think the guys are honest with each other. I just don't think we have committed to being a good basketball team. I think this team wants everything easy. They want the easy way out. They want to win easy. And I told them the only way you're going to win easy is your going to have to play hard. The harder you play, the easier the games become. We're taking the wrong approach. I gotta either find the right combination, the right guys, or we're going to get some guys out of here. It's the bottom line. Because this group right now, they are not playing right. It's in them to play right. But right now they haven't been -- either because I'm not getting to them, or they are not getting to each other. But at the end of the day, either we gotta do that, or we gotta make changes."
Therefore, I expect Boston to have a much bigger effort tonight in Cleveland than they had at Detroit. This will be a more favorable matchup for Boston's defense than it was last Sunday's game. Detroit has Greg Monroe and even Andre Drummond coming off the bench to pound the Celtics down low, while Cleveland doesn't have a powerful frontcourt to do that. Tyler Zeller and Tristan Thompson won't cause problems to Boston with their limited offensive skills. They might cause problems to Boston on the rebounds, but they won't need the extra attention on defense that Greg Monroe needed.
The key factor will of course be Kyrie Irving's performance tonight. The only thing that Boston's defense is currently doing well on their ability to pressuring the ball handler by Avery Bradley and Rajon Rondo, therefore I expect the Celtics to be able of doing a good defensive job in defending Irving tonight. Cleveland has a high volume of pick and roll ball handler plays, but they aren't very effective (#25 with 0.73 PPP for the season), even though they have been playing better lately with 0.83 PPP on their last 10 games. The problem for the Cavaliers is that Boston is an excellent defensive game on this kind of plays by being #2 in the league by allowing just 0.69 PPP!
On the other hand, Boston's offense has been struggling lately. In fact, they have been struggling all season long due to the inconsistent performances from Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. On their road trip, Cleveland was crushed on the rebounds, having allowed a ton of offensive rebounds to their opponents: 19, 7, 16, 15 and 15! However, they faced powerful frontcourts (Denver, Lakers, Sacramento and Utah), something that won't happen tonight against Boston. On the first game of this series, Boston won by 103-91 with an insanely hot offensive game: 59.7% FG, 9-17 3pts and 20-27 FT! It was also the first game that Cleveland had without Anderson Varejao and the Cavaliers weren't ready to play without him. This time, I expect both teams to do a good defensive job tonight and so, I'll be taking the Under in here on a Double Dime Play!
The key factor will of course be Kyrie Irving's performance tonight. The only thing that Boston's defense is currently doing well on their ability to pressuring the ball handler by Avery Bradley and Rajon Rondo, therefore I expect the Celtics to be able of doing a good defensive job in defending Irving tonight. Cleveland has a high volume of pick and roll ball handler plays, but they aren't very effective (#25 with 0.73 PPP for the season), even though they have been playing better lately with 0.83 PPP on their last 10 games. The problem for the Cavaliers is that Boston is an excellent defensive game on this kind of plays by being #2 in the league by allowing just 0.69 PPP!
On the other hand, Boston's offense has been struggling lately. In fact, they have been struggling all season long due to the inconsistent performances from Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. On their road trip, Cleveland was crushed on the rebounds, having allowed a ton of offensive rebounds to their opponents: 19, 7, 16, 15 and 15! However, they faced powerful frontcourts (Denver, Lakers, Sacramento and Utah), something that won't happen tonight against Boston. On the first game of this series, Boston won by 103-91 with an insanely hot offensive game: 59.7% FG, 9-17 3pts and 20-27 FT! It was also the first game that Cleveland had without Anderson Varejao and the Cavaliers weren't ready to play without him. This time, I expect both teams to do a good defensive job tonight and so, I'll be taking the Under in here on a Double Dime Play!
Pick: 4 units (Double Dime Play) on 501/502 Under 191 @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker
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