NBA Betting Cavaliers vs. Nets Play-In Tournament

The first NBA play-in tournament game Tuesday features Eastern Conference No. 7 Brooklyn hosting No. 8 Cleveland with the winner moving on to become the East’s official seventh seed and face No. 2 Boston in the first round of the playoffs. The Nets are solid favorites on the NBA odds.

How to Bet Cleveland at Brooklyn NBA Odds & TV Info

When: Tuesday, 7 PM ET
Where: Barclays Center
TV: TNT
Stream: TNT app
Radio: Tunein.com
NBA Odds: Nets -8.5 (total 229.5)

Season Series

The Nets won three of four in the regular season. The teams just met April 8 in Brooklyn and the Nets won 118-107. Kevin Durant had 36 points, Kyrie Irving 18 points, eight assists and six rebounds, and Andre Drummond 15 points and 12 rebounds. Darius Garland scored 31 points for the Cavaliers, who were outscored by 16 points in the fourth quarter. Durant made a three-pointer to kick off an 8-0 run that put Brooklyn in control at 107-97 with about 4 1/2 minutes remaining.

Why Bet on Cleveland?

The Cavs will not have All-Star center Jarrett Allen due to a broken finger. He hasn’t played since March 6. Allen did recently get the splint off and perhaps can play if the Cavs advance. This season, he averaged 16.1 points and 10.8 rebounds per game in 56 starts for the Cavs. His field goal percentage was a career-high 67.7-percent. Allen was Brooklyn’s first-round pick in the 2017 NBA Draft but when the Nets acquired James Harden in 2021, Allen was sent to Cleveland as part of a four-way deal.

One Cavs beat reported speculated that if the Cavs lose on Tuesday, there’s a 50/50 chance we could see Allen get out there for a do-or-die game against the winner between Atlanta and Charlotte on Friday.

“It’s a structure thing first and foremost,” Coach JB Bickerstaff said of Allen’s finger. “You always want to make sure that it’s as healthy as it possibly can be. In his position, the banging that he does, on the rim, like blocking shots, all those things. Then it becomes pain tolerance. Then strengthening and his ability to use that finger. But he’s making steps. It’ll be one of those things where the day will come and he’ll be ready to go.”

The Cavs finished the regular season 44-38, doubling their win total from last season (22-50). The 22-win improvement is the 2nd-largest win improvement by a Cavs team in franchise history.

Darius Garland finished the regular season averaging career highs in points (21.7 PPG), assists (8.6 APG), rebounds (3.3 RPG), steals (1.31 SPG), FG% (.462), FT% (.892), double-doubles (29) and minutes (35.7 MPG). Garland joined Mark Price as the only Cavs players in team history to finish a season averaging 18.0+ PTS, 7.0+ APG, 1.0+ SPG and .450+ FG%. Garland’s 29 points/assist double-doubles were tied for fourth in team history.

Likely NBA Rookie of the Year Evan Mobley finished with 21 double-doubles on the year, most of any rookies. He also had an NBA rookie-leading 36th multi-block games Mobley is 1 of 2 players in the NBA this season averaging 14.0+ PPG, 8.0+ RPG, 1.5 BPG and .500+ FG%, joining Rudy Gobert. Mobley was the 8th rookie since 1992 to finish a season with 1,000+ PTS, 500+ REB, 150+ AST, 100+ BLK and 50+ STL (LaPhonso Ellis, Tim Duncan, Shaquille O’Neal, Elton Brand, Vin Baker, Karl-Anthony Towns and Chris Webber).

The Cavs have had 8 games this season with 3+ players recording double-doubles. They have won 20 games against teams with a .500+ record this season.

Why Bet on Brooklyn?

The Nets will not have Ben Simmons for the play-in tournament but he might debut if the team advances to the next round. Simmons had an epidural shot in mid-March to subdue pain and irritation with a herniated disc in his lower back. He has found more traction in the past week, and, barring setbacks, there’s an increasing confidence that he could become available to the Nets sometime in a first-round series.

Nets coach Steve Nash said the organization would welcome the “challenge” of trying to integrate Simmons into their team during the playoffs. Brooklyn could use the excellent defender as the Nets’ defense has been sliding since a strong start to the season — they come into the postseason ranked 20th with a 112.3 defensive rating.

“Another challenge, but one that we’d welcome, clearly,” Nash said after Monday’s practice. “So we’ll see — if he’s able to play at some point it would be great to incorporate him and to try and learn as we go and see how he can help our team without having much history, or any history, with our group.”

Seth Curry is dealing with a hamstring injury but will play. Curry was sixth in the league in 3FG% (.422) this season. Fellow guard Goran Dragic cleared COVID protocols on Monday and also will play. In 16 games played this season for Brooklyn, the 35-year-old has produced averages of 7.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 4.8 assists in 25.5 minutes per contest.

If he had played enough games to qualify, Kevin Durant would have finished fourth in the NBA scoring race at 29.9 ppg, trailing Joel Embiid (30.6 ppg), LeBron James (30.3 ppg) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (29.9 ppg). In the 19 games after he returned from injury, Durant averaged 31.1 ppg, 7.4 rpg, 7.6 apg and 1.1 spg in 38.6 mpg on 50/40/90 shooting splits (.516 FG, .400 3FG, .935 FT).

Brooklyn was 15-1 when holding its opponent under .400 FG % this season. The Nets were 29-3 when holding their opponent under 110 points. They were 18-3 when scoring 120+ points and 20-4 when shooting .500+ FG %.