Bill Yin breaks down his prediction and pick for tonight’s game between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers.
The 36-40 Warriors will host the 47-29 Cavaliers tonight. The Cavaliers have listed Jaylon Tyson and Dean Wade as Out, while the Warriors have not yet submitted their injury report.
The Cavaliers are 10.5-point favorites on DraftKings Sportsbook with the total for this game set at 228.5 points.
Cavaliers vs. Warriors prediction, preview
Cleveland is still the steadier team walking into this one, but the shine is not quite as squeaky clean as the record looks. The Cavs are 47-29 and 23-15 on the road. They’re scoring 119.3 PPG while allowing 115.3. They’re averaging 44.3 RPG and 28.3 APG while posting the sixth best OFFRTG at 118.2. There’s just some good synergy here, especially after the Cavaliers acquired James Harden over the trade deadline. He’s been tremendous in unlocking Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley, which gives his star back court partner Donovan Mitchell plenty of space to operate during a career season. They just smacked the Jazz (to be fair, everybody does) two games ago, when Mobley and Mitchell both scored 34 and the Cavs won the paint 82-40. But their defense has been leaky. Cleveland just gave up 127 to the Lakers, and even with the preferred starting group finally on the floor, the defense has had more issues than a contender wants this late in the season. They’ll look to close this one out decisively, as they hang just 1.5 games behind the third seeded Knicks.
Golden State is sorely missing Steph Curry. The Warriors are posting 114.7 PPG while allowing 115.1. Even without Curry, they still try to play with flow, cuts, extra passes, and quick reads rather than pounding the air out of the ball. The problem is that this roster is built around Curry, and without him, things get messy quick. Curry is still out tonight and, per the Warriors’ own update and the San Francisco Chronicle, needs another live scrimmage before the team clears him to return. Kristaps Porzingis sat Wednesday for precautionary reasons on the back-to-back and is expected back tonight. Recently, the Warriors just got steamrolled 127-113 by San Antonio in a game where they trailed 70-49 at the half and were missing Curry and Porzingis. Fortunately for them, they’ve clinched the play-in position because the Pelicans are a full nine games behind them, and the Warriors will certainly get Curry back for some postseason action.
Cavaliers vs. Warriors pick, best Bet
Best Bet: CLE Cavaliers -10.5 (-105)
The Warriors don’t really have much to play for, unless they can catch the ninth seeded Trail Blazers, who they are 2.5 games behind. They’re already guaranteed a play-in spot and are weak without their superstar guard, so it’s reasonable to expect the Cavaliers to control this one from the tip.
