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We’ve got a very heavy card on the hardwood for Wednesday night, and some of the best teams in the Eastern Conference will duke it out for some early-season bragging rights. I’ve picked out a couple of games I really like on this card and will get right to them now.
Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Brooklyn Nets (-10.5) Total: 206.5
It may be a little bit more difficult to trust the Cavaliers these days without Evan Mobley and Collin Sexton, but I think there’s enough there to believe they can compete with the Nets on the second night of a back-to-back on Wednesday.
Ricky Rubio has stepped into Sexton’s role quite admirably in recent games, and to be frank it wasn’t as if the youngster was giving Cleveland much of anything prior to his injury. The loss of Mobley is what really hurts Cleveland, considering how good he was at defending the paint.
Opponents were just 52% inside five feet against Mobley, according to Second Spectrum, and with Jarrett Allen and also missing for this game, there is not much of anything Cleveland can do to stop the attacks inside.
The thing is, the Nets hate scoring around the rim. They average the fewest field goals attempted inside five feet this year at just 21 per game, according to NBA.com. Furthermore, the frontcourt looked horrendous against Golden State with Kevin Durant hampered by injury and Blake Griffin looking flat.
The Nets are 8-9 against the spread on the second night of back-to-backs since the beginning of last year and I think they should continue to struggle in this spot against a hungry Cleveland team.
Edge: Cavaliers +10.5
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Indiana Pacers vs. Detroit Pistons (+6) Total: 211.5
The Pistons have covered in three of their last five games, and now have a chance to take aim at a very underwhelming Pacers defense.
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Indiana currently sits 18th in defensive efficiency with some terrible games on their ledger, and are far from an unstoppable defensive side. While the Pistons are a bottom-five team in efficiency on both sides of the ball, they’ve looked much better lately with a 132.3 offensive rating a couple of games ago against a good Raptors defense.
Their offense has generally been better aside from a flop in Cleveland, but that’s understandable with the way the Cavs were defending with Mobley.
Detroit also has Cade Cunningham in its pocket now; he’s looked like the first overall pick lately with a career-high 25 points the other night. He can bring this offense to new heights and help take advantage of this prime matchup.
Edge: Pistons +6
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