Cleveland Cavaliers vs Toronto Raptors – Game 1
NBA: 8.00 PM EST
May 01, 2018
The Cleveland Cavaliers were led by another superhuman effort by Lebron James to defeat the Indiana Pacers in the decisive seventh game of their first-round series, 105-101 at Quicken Loans Arena. They will travel to the Great White North to take on the Toronto Raptors in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals on Tuesday night.
The Raptors have been off since dispatching the Washington Wizards in Game 6 on Friday night. The Cavs, meanwhile, were pushed to the limit by Indiana in the first round, with their star player James averaging 41+ minutes in the seven games.
The Cavaliers played their first-round series at the slowest pace of any of the eight in the 2018 playoffs, and I expect them to try to rein in a high-octane Toronto offense by imposing that tempo on the Raptors early in Game 1. I’m looking for the Cavs to be fatigued or the Raps to be rusty, and any combination of those should lead to a lower-scoring game than is projected by Vegas.
Our NBA Free Tip: Under 216