Will The Celtics Add a Second Win Against The Cavaliers This Week?
Take a Glance At Our Cavaliers vs Celtics Preview For Thursday's Matchup
The Cleveland Cavaliers will take on the Boston Celtics for the second time this week.
On Tuesday, the Cavaliers lost to the Celtics on the road, 120-113. In that game, Cavaliers’ power forward Evan Mobley didn’t play. However, he’s listed as questionable for this game.
Meanwhile, the Celtics had three players in double figures, including Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Kristaps Porzingis.
Boston’s win pushed them to 17-5 on the NBA season. However, the Cavaliers are a couple of losses away from returning at .500.
Oddsmakers still like the Celtics in this spot. Boston is sitting at -10.5, with the total currently at 225.5.
Will Boston take care of business for the second consecutive game against the Cavaliers?
Read our Cavaliers vs Celtics preview below for the answers.
Cavaliers vs Celtics 
Day/Time:
Location: TD Garden, Boston, MA
Streaming: NBA TV
Cavaliers vs Celtics Preview
While the Celtics earned a win on Tuesday, the Cavaliers were the ones who covered. The Celtics were -11 and only earned a seven-point win at home.
Meanwhile, the total hit the Over 227 in that NBA matchup.
The Celtics are winning a lot of games. But they’re not covering. Boston is just 9-11-2 against the spread this season despite owning a 17-5 record.
On the other hand, the Cavaliers are just 10-14 against the spread despite having a 13-11 record.
Beyond that, both NBA teams have hit the Over and Under almost evenly. The Cavaliers have hit the Over and Under 12 times each, while the Celtics have earned the Over in 10 of 22 matchups.
Cleveland Hit 19 Threes On Tuesday
Although the Cavaliers lost to the Celtics earlier this week, Cleveland nailed 19 three-point attempts on 45 attempts in that game.
That was a season-high for the Cavaliers, which is at least something to be excited about.
Donovan Mitchell and Max Strus each hit five threes. Darius Garland nailed four threes, and Dean Wade added two more off mostly drive-and-kick situations.
The Cavaliers did well with their penetration and could find wide-open looks from deep.
Boston was helping around the rim. Therefore, guys were open around the perimeter in the entire game. The Cavaliers recognized it and capitalized.
Still, the Celtics’ game plan worked. Boston ended up with the win at the end of the day.
Are Jaylen Brown’s Assists Stats Misleading?
On Tuesday night, ESPN posted a graphic showing Jaylen Brown had no assists while taking 43 shot attempts during the last couple of games.
Of course, the media got involved and asked Brown and his head coach, Joe Mazzulla, about the stat.
Both agreed that assists are sometimes misleading.
Brown acknowledged that there wasn’t enough context and that people don’t watch the games enough. Meanwhile, Mazzulla explained that many things must go right for an NBA player to earn one assist. No matter how good a pass is, the player still needs to score the bucket.
While Brown has passed the ball recently, he’s certainly not putting his teammates in the best positions to score, or they would’ve scored on his passes.
Assists are misleading but still mean something.
Can the Celtics score at a higher rate to get Brown more assists? Our Cavaliers vs Celtics preview for the game is below.
Different Game, Same Result
The Cleveland Cavaliers haven’t been consistent offensively this season. We already touched on it earlier. However, the Cavaliers have scored only 112 points per 100 possessions. That’s only the 25th in the NBA.
Meanwhile, Cleveland has shot an effective field goal percentage of 54%, but that’s 19th in the NBA.
The Cavaliers aren’t above average in any essential category offensively. They’re below-average in turnover percentage, offensive rebounding percentage, and free throw rate.
On the other hand, the Celtics have the best defensive rate when it comes to free throw rate, with a 14.5. Boston is also sixth in the NBA in offensive rebounding percentage defensively. Finally, the Celtics are top five defensively in points per 100 possessions and defensive effective field goal percentage.
Unless Cleveland gets red hot from the field again, the Cavaliers will struggle to score consistently against the Celtics.
Conversely, the Cavaliers are better defensively. They’ve held teams to 111.6 points per 100 possessions and have allowed only a 52.7% effective field goal percentage. While the Cavaliers could end up with more turnovers, the Celtics are much more consistent offensively.
Boston has scored 118.6 points per 100 possessions and has shot a 56.9% effective field goal percentage, which is fourth-best in the league.
The Celtics should end up with more foul shots and have a better chance at earning second chances, with the Cavaliers allowing nearly 29% of offensive rebounds.
The NBA scores today will likely have the Celtics ahead of the Cavaliers by a wide margin. That’s one of our NBA predictions.
Therefore, we’ll back the Celtics at -10.5 as one of our best bets in the NBA spreads section.
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