Despite not having Donovan Mitchell in Game 4 the Cavaliers still put up a fight and lost only by 7 points, covering as 11.5 point underdogs. The spread for Game 5 has increased to a whopping 15.5 points, that’s without us knowing whether or not Mitchell will even suit up. Darius Garland played the best game of the entire postseason, finishing with 30 points and 7 assists. The entire Cavs team played with a sense of urgency on offense, knowing that they have to make up for the 30+ points Mitchell usually delivers. Facing a 3-1 deficit at TD Garden isn’t ideal, but nobody realistically expected the Cavaliers to advance from this series anyway. They did pull off a upset win in Game 2 in this building, however the chances of that happening again aren’t very high.
The Celtics have an opportunity to become the first team to advance to the Conference finals after their 109-102 win on Monday. Jayson Tatum had his best scoring game of the postseason with 33 points, while Jaylen Brown delivered 27 and 8 rebounds. At TD Garden the Cs are 17-3 SU in their last 20 games, while against the Cavaliers they’ve won 10 of the last 12 meetings there. The 7 point win in Game 4 was the lowest margin of victory for them this postseason, but they still lead the postseason in Net Rating at +12.3 points. Aside from Kristaps Porzingis being out, they have zero other injury worries at the moment which is a rarity at this point of the season. In their last 7 games the Celtics have covered the spread 5 times, but tonight’s spread will be the largest in a game this postseason.
