Game Time: 7:30 PM ET, Friday, April 15th, 2022 

Venue:   Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, Cleveland, Ohio

Where to Watch: ESPN

DraftKings:  Spread: Hawks -2.5; O/U 222.5

Fanduel:  Spread:  Hawks -2.5; O/U 222.5

BetMGM:  Spread: Hawks -2.5; O/U 222.5

Hawks: 43-39, 9th place Eastern Conference

Cavaliers: 44-38, 8th place Eastern Conference

The NBA Play-In tournament has given us an expected matchup between the 9th place team and the 8th place team.  The Hawks beat the 10th place Hornets in Play-in Tournament Game 1 as expected… The Hornets not covering the spread and not making a game out of it was not.  The Hawks made full use of Clint Capela against a Hornets team that was extremely weak at the Center spot. Trae Young, the NBA's POINTS and ASSISTS leader of this season, was a force the Hornets could not stop.  The Cavaliers lost their Game 1 Matchup with the Brooklyn Nets.. They however covered the spread… a fantastic covering it was!  THe Cavs are missing C Jarrett Allen.  The rumor mill keeps telling us he will lace em’ up and give it a go for this elimination game… which would profoundly change the matchup.  Having Jarrett Allen against Brooklyn would have done very little against the scoring onslaught of Nets PG Kyrie Irving who made 12 of his first 12 shots.  A shining takeaway the Cavs can run with is knowing that PG Trae Young will not make 12 of his first 12 shots.  So we have the Hawks vs the Cavs in: the  loser walks and the winner goes on to the Playoffs. Kudos to the NBA for giving us some drama out of the teams most people ignore at the start of every NBA Playoffs.  

The Atlanta Hawks have won 8 of their last ten games, including the Play-In Tournament win over the Charlotte Hornets. They are 7-3 ATS during that stretch. Atlanta blew Charlotte out of the water 132-103 … it wasn’t even close.  The biggest takeaway is the obvious takeaway… The Hornets have nothing of quality playing at the Center position. PG Trae Young had 24 pts, 11 asts… after him the scoring was spread around to everybody. They got big games out of De’Andre Hunter, Danilo Galinari and Clint Capela.  It was a group attack for which Charlotte had no defense.  Atlanta’s challenge in this game will be exactly that… Cleveland has a much better defense than Charlotte… in fact Cleveland has been top five all season. While Atlanta’s own weakness is defense!  To win this game Atlanta will need another giant game from Ice Trae… and remember PF John Collins is Out with a foot injury… That gives more playing time to Danilo Galinari… but less defense than even the shoddy 21st place defense they put up all year.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have won only 2 of their last 10 games including the Play-in tournament loss to the Brooklyn Nets. They are 3-7 ATS during that stretch.  They covered the spread against Brooklyn.  The spread in this game is much smaller… they will need to win to keep playing.  In the Brooklyn loss Darius Garland balled out with 34 points and 5 assists. He was still -11 +/- because he was going against Kyrie Irving.  The main problem is that rookie PF Evan Mobley is stretched TOO thin against Centers.  He can’t do all he could do by simply playing him out of position and giving him TOO many defensive responsibilities.  So this game breaks down to whether C Jarrett Allen can give it a go or not.  With Allen and Mobley playing side by side both the defense and the offense clicks for Cleveland.  PF Kevin Love and PF Lauri Markanen are just not defenders at the scale of C Jarrett Allen and they can not fill the hole.  

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The Hawks are 44-39 on the season, but 37-45 ATS.  They have logged 43 Overs and 39 Unders.  They are 16-25 ATS.  They are 16-25 in road games.

The Cavaliers are 44-39 on the season, but 42-37-3 ATS.  They have notched 37 Overs, 44 Unders, and 1 Push. They are 25-16 in home games.

 

The Hawks are 6th in scoring with 113.9 ppg, 20th in rebounds with 44 per game, and 4th in AST/TO ratio with 2.1.  On defense they rank 21st while allowing 112.4 ppg from opponents.

The Cavaliers are 25th in scoring with 107.8 ppg, 15th in rebounds with 44.2 per game, and 21st in AST/TO ratio with 1.7.  On defense they rank 5th while holding opponents to 105.7 ppg.

Our prediction for Friday, April 15th is….. Cavaliers 125 - Hawks 122

The Bet is for the Cavs.  It entirely depends on whether or not C Jarrett Allen plays.  He doesn’t even have to play the whole game… just give it a 20 minute run.  The rumor mill is saying it is time for all hands on deck.  I’m willing to throw $400 blind that this will be the outcome and I get some points to hold on to.  The League was so impressed by the Hawks first game and so down on the Cavs performance in their Play-in game.. Still the Cavs have all the defense that the Charlotte Hornets did not.  

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Cleveland is 4-1 ATS versus Atlanta in Cleveland over the last 3 seasons.

3 of 5 games in this series in Cleveland have gone UNDER.

Atlanta is 55-48 ATS versus Cleveland since 1996.

66 of 102 games in this series since 1996 have gone OVER.

Hawks: PF John Collins (foot) Out ** SG Lou Williams (back) Quest

Cavs: PG Colin Sexton (knee) Out ** C Jaret Allen (finger) Quest

Hawks: PF Danilo Gallinari, SF De’Andre Hunter, C Clint Capela, SG Kevin Huerter, PG Trae Young

Cavaliers: SF Caris LaVert, PF Lauri Markanen, C Evan Monbley, PG Darius Garland, SG Isaac Okoro

Hawks: Nate McMilan

Cavs: J.B. Bickerstaff