Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Los Angeles Lakers Prediction, NBA Odds
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Edgar Chaput
LeBron James won a championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016, but on Saturday he’ll be helping his current team the Lakers as they try to get into the eight vs. seven Play-In game in the Western Conference. L.A. is currently half a game behind the Sacramento Kings. The visiting Cavaliers have their sights set on second place in the East, as they’re only one and a half games behind the Milwaukee Bucks.
Check the NBA odds as they develop.
Cavaliers vs. Lakers NBA Betting Odds
Cleveland and L.A. draw swords only twice per season. As it stands, the Lakers can pay back last year’s two-game sweep at the hands of the Cavs. The Purple and Gold won the first match back in November when the sides clashed in Ohio. Los Angeles had captured the five games before that, but those weren’t the same calibre of Cleveland teams.
The visitors are dealing when plenty of injuries, albeit for once they don’t concern the roster’s top players. Ty Jerome (ankle), Isaac Okoro (toe), Craig Porter (illness), and Dean Wade (knee) are all listed as out. The stats sheet for recent results shows that the over has connected a lot – six of the last eight games to be exact. That’s quite interesting given that the Cavs sport the seventh-best defence in the league (109.9 points per match). Cleveland isn’t doing itself many favours overall, losing of six of their last 10 games and only 3-7 ATS over that span.
On the other end of the spectrum are the Los Angeles Lakers, who return from a six-game road swing for which they finished a superb 5-1. It was that long ago that this very author predicted that the Lake Show would not make the postseason, and that’s looking like an increasingly foolish guess with every passing contest. The team has also been handling the spread a bit better as well, having gone 5-2 in its last seven. The news on Jarred Vanderbilt, as of April 5, is that he’ll be re-evaluated for his foot next week.
Cleveland Cavaliers
Just as the Milwaukee Bucks keep leaving the door ajar for the Cavs to claim second place in the Eastern Conference, the latter keep tripping over hurdles to get their. Case in point: Wednesday night in Phoenix versus the Suns.
Cleveland put in a terrible performance against the Suns, deservedly losing 122-101. Their first-half performance was so lowly that competing better after the break against the statistically worst fourth-quarter team in the NBA resulted in a 21-point defeat. On the positive side, three starters hit at least 20 points: Donovan Mitchell (24), Evan Mobley (20), and Jarrett Allen (20). Max Strus was a rebounding machine, collecting 12 balls off the glass and providing eight assists. Nevertheless, the Cavaliers were clearly the second-best team on the court Wednesday.
Saturday’s match is the first of two this weekend in Los Angeles. They play the Clippers on Sunday afternoon.
Los Angeles Lakers
It’s a bit difficult to believe but the Lakers are doing exactly what they accomplished one year ago. They experienced a mostly mediocre 2022-23 regular season except for the final couple of months, which set them on their way to the Western Conference Finals in the postseason. Can they repeat the feat?
Granted, playing the Wizards as they did Wednesday is not a terrific litmus test, but they handled the game with relative aplomb, winning 125-120. The Wizards scored some garbage time threes to make the final score appear closer than the game actually was. The only time Washington seriously threatened was when big guns Anthony Davis (35 points), James (25 points), and Rui Hachimura (19 points) rested on the bench. In fact, the starter with the fewest points was Austin Reaves, who still tallied a decent 16.
CLE
LAL