Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers can’t seem to catch a break on the injury front. Just a couple of games since returning from a hamstring issue, Mitchell broke his nose against the Houston Rockets about a week ago. The Cavs are 1-1 SU without him in the two games, taking on an elite team like Minnesota could be a challenge without their best player. Cleveland did win the first meeting 113-104 about 2 weeks ago, Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen had 34 and 33 points in that game. It was only the 2nd time Cleveland was able to cover the spread in the last 8 meetings with Minnesota and just their 2nd win in 6 games overall. With the Orlando Magic currently on a 5-game win streak, the 3rd seed might come into question if the Cavaliers aren’t able to connect a few wins in the coming weeks.
Minnesota is in a similar position with injuries to Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns derailing them in their quest of finishing with the top record in the West. To make matters worse they also have Anthony Edwards and Naz Reid on the injury report as well, however they only have minor knocks and should be ready to play here. Ant-Man is doing his best to keep this team afloat on his own, but Minnesota has struggled to cover the spread in home games lately going just 1-5 ATS in their last 6. However, they’re still 5.5 point favorites against the Cavaliers here, in that role they’ve won 9 of their last 13 games this season. It’s worth mentioning that this team has upped its average of threes per game from 12.5 to 15.7 per game over the last 3 games.
