Cleveland Cavaliers vs Boston Celtics Prediction: Cavaliers to show their best

Boston and Cleveland played a very entertaining game a few days ago in which the Cavaliers were stronger on the road. The Celtics will try to take revenge for the home defeat. Will the visitors be able to do the job?

It took the Cavaliers little over a year to go from ugly duckling to beautiful swan. It's nice to see how Cleveland's defense is performing and even without Darius Garland, the team has five wins in six games. There is a sense that Donovan Mitchell is getting closer to superstar status, averaging 32.2 points and 7.3 assists while hitting nearly 50% of his shots from the field. Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen are looking more and more confident. Caris LeVert has had some good games this season, while Cedi Osman and Kevin Love are providing good help off the bench. Dean Wade has become an important link in the Cavaliers' defense and as the season progressed he won competition for a spot in the starting five from Isaac Okoro. Cleveland frequently played with three big men last season as well releasing Lauri Markkanen at small forward position, now Wade is replacing Finn.

Darius Garland has already begun full training and can play against Boston, so only Dylan Windler and Ricky Rubio are likely to be out. The last match saw Cleveland combine for 33 assists even without its key playmaker, 12 of which were handled by Donovan Mitchell. The result was a 121-108 win over the New York Knicks. Cavaliers made as many as 23 three-pointers, with just three players making 22: Wade made 6 three-pointers and Mitchell and Love had 8 apiece. Caris LeVert was ineffective, as well as Jarrett Allen, and Osman missed shots from beyond the arc as well. Cleveland missed a lot in the paint, so even with a positive outcome there is still room for improvement.

The Celtics have won 4 of their 6 starting regular season games, they are now 3rd in the Eastern Conference. The Celtics rank fifth in shooting from the field (47.9 percent) and third in shooting percentage from beyond the arc (39.9 percent). So far only three Boston players have been on the floor for more than 30 minutes, just short of Al Horford but he has already been rested in one game. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum combined for just under half of their team's points, and Grant Williams leads the club in scoring from the floor. Boston has gotten used to the absence of Danilo Gallinari and Robert Williams, and no major changes to the roster are expected compared to previous games.

Joe Mazzulla's team defeated Washington 112-94 at home in the last regular season gae. One of the key factors in their success was high field-goal percentage again: 21 of 47 shots were accurate. Only two players on the starting five scored at least 8 points — Tatum and Brown were the most productive on the team along with Malcolm Brogdon, who came off the bench.

The Cavaliers have won five of their last six home games. According to this trend, Cleveland's win including overtime for 2.10 looks interesting at Bet365.

Jayson Tatum is averaging 30.8 points per game, so maybe we should try Tatum's ITO 27.5 points at odds of 1.80 at 1xbet.

Cleveland was quite good at some parts to hold back Boston's offense, and they will try even harder at home on defense. Darius Garland's return should benefit the Cavaliers, but it will be difficult for the team to rebuild on offense. The Celtics blew the game defensively in the last faceoff, but Grant Williams, who was serving his suspension, wasn't there then. Both are good at hitting three-pointers, ranking in the top 3 in the NBA for that metric, but the home team is pretty good defensively at the arc. Our prediction for the game is as follows:

• TU (222.5) for 1.90;
• W1 (incl. OT) for 2.10;
• H1 (-6) for 3.30.

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