The Cavaliers held serve in their second-round series against the Pistons, pulling off two wins on their home court to tie the series and force Games 5 and 6.
The Cavaliers are now 6-0 at home and 0-5 on the road in the NBA playoffs, which is just the third time a team has opened the NBA postseason with such a stark home/road split.
The series returns to Detroit for Game 5, and the pressure couldn’t be higher for both teams. The Cavaliers need to win at least one road game to win the series, and the Pistons desperately need to protect home court to slow the Cavs’ momentum.
The Pistons are 3.5-point favorites with the Over/Under set at 212.5.
Donovan Mitchell is starting to heat up for the Cavaliers. Cleveland’s dynamic scorer has scored 30 points or more in three straight games and is coming off a 43-point masterpiece in Game 4 to help the Cavs tie the series at two games apiece.
What made Mitchell’s night even more impressive was that he shot 1-for-8 from the floor, including 1-for-5 from deep, and scored four points in the first half. After halftime, his spider-senses started tingling.
Mitchell scored 12 field goals and hit 12 free throws in the second half — more points at the charity stripe than the Pistons did as a team the entire game — which drew the ire of Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff.
“It’s unacceptable,” Bickerstaff said of the free-throw disparity. “We didn’t do enough, obviously, to help ourselves, and I’ll start there. But ever since we came to Cleveland, the whistle has changed. There’s no way that one guy on their team shoots more free throws than our team.”
The irony is that Mitchell had a similar frustration with the calls he felt he wasn’t receiving after Game 1 and said he would make a concerted effort to attack the rim going forward. Mitchell has done most of his damage in the paint, shooting 30-for-44 in the painted area for the series and averaging 10.7 free throws per game since his postgame comments.
Cleveland certainly looks like it has some momentum going into Game 5, and Mitchell’s confidence is growing by the game. While the Cavs haven’t won a road playoff game yet, Mitchell already scored 30 points in Game 2 in Detroit.
With the scoring groove he’s in, I like Mitchell to go over his points prop at 27.5 and keep his hot streak going.
The Play: Donovan Mitchell Over 27.5 points (-105, DraftKings)
Malik Smith has been immersed in the sports betting industry since 2017. He’s a data nerd with a particular focus on the NBA and combat sports. He spends his weeknights in the winter looking for edges on plus-money NBA player props.
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