The Cleveland Cavaliers flopped in their first game after the conclusion of the All-Star break on Thursday night, as they fell by three to the Detroit Pistons, who likely are a few years away from being a postseason contender.
The Cavaliers were without Darius Garland, whose lower back soreness has been a lingering issue, and the team will have to manage it the rest of the way, as we know. He’s been ruled out for Saturday’s contest against the Washington Wizards as well, and he has a bone bruise in his back.
The Cavs didn’t have Caris LeVert in that Pistons game either, as he is expected to miss 1-2 weeks as of Thursday because of a right foot sprain, which is less than ideal. LeVert has had injury issues throughout his career, but this doesn’t seem overly serious. He did previously have a foot injury back with the Brooklyn Nets; this isn’t all that hampering looking onward, though.
It was nice to see Lauri Markkanen back for Cleveland at Detroit, and while he was off for much of the contest, he did lead Cleveland with 22 points, and didn’t appear limited at all coming off missing near a month with a high right ankle sprain. That was a positive takeaway.
Now, the Cavs losing to the Pistons still was disappointing either way, and they’ll need to right the ship soon here with the Eastern Conference so tightly-contested. They’ll look to do that on Saturday as we noted, against the Wizards.
With that, the Cavs and Wizards are set to play for the fourth and final time this season on Saturday. So what do you need to know, and how to bet?
The Wizards are a club that currently a one game back of a play-in spot and they’re 27-32 on the season. Washington is a new-look club that no longer has Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans, as they traded them to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Kristaps Porzingis and a second-round pick. Washington is also without Bradley Beal for the rest of the season, in relation to wrist surgery, so they clearly wanted to shake things up, and there were inconsistencies from both Dinwiddie and Bertans.
With that in mind, this one should be different than the other meetings between these teams thus far, and the Cavaliers in general will need to be more on-point with their closeouts to shooters here, still. That’s been an issue in Cleveland’s two losses to Washington this season.
When looking at how the two clubs have done of late, both have been up-and-down, with the Cavs 5-5 in their last 10 and the Wiz 4-6. The Wiz did beat the Brooklyn Nets on the second night of a back-to-back before the All-Star break in their last game played, but lost to the Indiana Pacers the day prior, and Porzingis wasn’t in that one.
He wasn’t playing in Washington’s loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Friday night, and currently, it seems doubtful that he’ll be playing against the Cavaliers on Saturday night.
That was a crazy game between the Wizards and Spurs, with the Spurs ultimately winning in double overtime 157-153, in a game where defense was optional, to say the least, and with that having been the case, the Cavs should benefit, I’d think early on.
So, next up, we’ll take a look at the betting info for this contest.
Cavaliers-Wizards: Betting info
According to our partners at WynnBet, the Cavaliers are favored by 7.5 points over the Wizards, which is sensible, with Washington’s injuries and them being on the second leg of a back-to-back, even following the All-Star break. That marathon of a Spurs game should play into it, too.
The over/under for both teams in this contest is currently set for 203.5, and that for Cleveland is 105.5 and Washington is 98.5.
Cavaliers-Wizards: Projected starters and injuries
Wizards starters: Raul Neto, Corey Kispert, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma, Daniel Gafford
Cavs starters: Brandon Goodwin, Isaac Okoro, Lauri Markkanen, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen
Wizards injuries: Bradley Beal (out for season, wrist); Isaiah Todd (out, On G League Assignment); Joel Ayayi and Cassius Winston (out, G League two-way); Kristaps Porzingis (doubtful, knee).
Cavs injuries: Darius Garland (out, back); Caris LeVert (out, foot); Rajon Rondo (out, toe); Dylan Windler (out, On G League assignment); RJ Nembhard Jr. (out, G League two-way); Collin Sexton (likely out for season, knee).
Cavs-Wizards: Prediction
With the injuries involved here, one can imagine why the over/under is so low, compared to when these teams would be healthier. That is very low, even still, though.
As we touched on, the Cavaliers will be without Garland and LeVert again, and from a backup lead guard standpoint, Rondo being out for approximately 2 weeks due to a right big toe injury, per the team, does hurt from a depth perspective. The veteran is of course in his 16th season, so ailments have to be forseeable, but he has seemingly gotten some chemistry down in recent weeks with other Cavs, and I’d have thought he could’ve hit Markkanen a bunch here.
It’s tough to see, to that point, if he does play at all (I wouldn’t expect it) 10-day veteran point guard signing Tim Frazier being too involved here in reserve minutes.
The Cavs will have to adjust, anyhow, and it’s not as if the Wizards aren’t missing crucial pieces; we hit on the Beal situation and Porzingis, while it’s not officially listed yet, seems likely to be out again here.
Granted, I’m not going to just expect the Cavs to roll here, without the pieces we noted. Regardless, with the Wizards game on Friday night undoubtedly being a factor here, I would expect the Cavs to get back in the win column, partly from a schedule standpoint and Brandon Goodwin I believe has another good outing here.
These Wizards aren’t just going to go away early on in the contest; I just think the Cavs down the stretch have a run in them to put this one out of reach for Washington by a bit, even without the pieces we mentioned and an All-Star in Garland.
Evan Mobley, for what it’s worth, I believe has a big game in him here, and as Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff reportedly called for, Mobley is more aggressive in this one, and we see him putting his imprint on the game offensively early and often.
For the team as a whole, the Cavaliers end up winning from having more juice as the game progresses, and while I don’t have quite as much conviction about this, I’ll say Cleveland covers by a bit from a notable run. But I do believe this one will be higher scoring than the over/unders suggest, even with what we touched on.
Prediction: Cavs 111, Wizards 102
The Bet: Cavs (+7.5), OVER
Cavaliers-Wizards: How to watch
This last regular season matchup between the Cavs and Wizards can be seen on Bally Sports Ohio and NBC Sports Washington, for fans in-market and are subscribed.
And for fans not with those options in-market or out of market, NBA League Pass will get the job done here.
Cavs upcoming schedule:
After this contest against the Wizards, Cleveland will continue on with the next two games of their current three-game homestand with games against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday and Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday.
Both of those games will be against two exciting teams in Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns and Minnesota and LaMelo Ball, Terry Rozier and Charlotte that will want play at a fast pace, whereas I’d expect Cleveland to want a slower pace. In those, the Cavs will look to take both games against the Timberwolves this season, and the Wine and Gold will try to move to 3-1 against the Hornets this season, with all of the games being close to this point.
From there, the Cavs will have just their second meeting with the Philadelphia 76ers and Joel Embiid, somehow, of the season, again in Philly.
Embiid dominated Cleveland a couple of weeks back there the first go-round, and in this one, Cleveland will likely be facing James Harden with the Sixers for the first time, in which the Cavaliers will have a really tough matchup there. That’ll be the first of a five-game stretch early in March where four of games are on the road for the Cavaliers.