The Cavaliers have won all eight of their postseason games and will aim to keep that streak alive. Boston was expected to get here, but the Celtics needed everything they had to get past the Bulls in the opening round and the Wizards in the second round.
The Celtics knocked out Washington in Game 7 at home last time out and would love to treat their fans to another critical win to open this series. However, it is going to be tough with as well as Cleveland is playing right now.
This war on the floor will go down Wednesday, May 17, 2017, at 8:30 p.m. ET at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The game will be televised live on TNT.
We'll have NBA odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the NBA Wednesday schedule.
NBA Odds
The Cavaliers are three-point favorites in Game 1 of the series against the Celtics. The betting public believes that is much too low, as 94.3 percent of the early money is riding Cleveland. The Cavs are -165 on the moneyline while Boston is a +144 home underdog. Once again, the money is going heavy on Cleveland.
The scoring total is set at 219.5 points, with the “under’ getting 57 percent of the early action.
Cleveland is 59-31 straight up and 40-46-4 against the spread. The Cavaliers are 19-24-2 against the spread on the road this season. Cleveland is 35-36-4 against the spread as the favorite on the year.
The Celtics are 61-34 straight up and 50-44-1 against the spread. Boston has covered in 22 of 48 attempts at home this season. The Celtics are 12-11-1 against the spread as the underdog and have rarely gotten points in Boston.
Season Series
Boston and Cleveland faced off four times in the regular season with the Cavaliers winning three of those matchups. In the most recent matchup on April 5th, the Cavs captured a convincing 114-91 win over the Celtics behind 36 points and 10 rebounds from LeBron James.
The Celtics went on to win three of the remaining four games of the season while the Cavaliers went 0-4, however, to steal the top seed in the East. Still, between the two teams, Cleveland has had the edge this year.
LeBron has been integral in all three victories, finishing with a combined 53 points, 15 rebounds and 23 assists in the first two meetings of the year. He had a triple double in the third matchup of the year in March, but it wasn’t enough as the Cavs fell 103-99.
Key Stat
Ten. That’s the number of days Cleveland has had off since sweeping Toronto in the the last round. The question for the Cavaliers is will all that time off mean they arrive in the Eastern Conference Finals rusty or well-rested?
The Cavs had a full week off between the first two rounds of the playoffs and didn’t miss a beat in the semifinals. The defending champions will look to stay perfect, but Boston should be a bigger challenge than the Pacers or Raptors.
The Celtics enters Wednesday’s game with just a day of rest in between rounds after the Wizards pushed the series to seven games. After losing Game 6 to the Wizards by a point, they ended on a high note with 115-105 victory to advance on Monday.
Free NBA ATS Pick
Boston may be the higher seed, but Cleveland is the strong favorite to win this series at -565. The Celtics would be well-served to win Game 1, as that would take away some of Cleveland’s momentum.
However, James is playing at a really high level while Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and the rest of the supporting cast also looks good. The Cavs seem to be peaking at the right time and should have little problem picking up this victory to start the Eastern Conference Finals off on a high note.
NBA Odds: Cavaliers 113, Celtics 105
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