Boston Celtics vs Cleveland Cavaliers Odds, Player Props & Predictions (Feb 4)

• The top two teams in the East meet on Tuesday when the Celtics visit the Cavaliers in Cleveland
• Boston is 5.5 games back of Cleveland for the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference
• See the Boston Celtics vs Cleveland Cavaliers odds, predictions, and player props for Feb. 4

If the Boston Celtics (35-15, 19-6 away, 19-30-1 ATS) have designs on wresting the #1 seed in the East from the Cleveland Cavaliers (40-9, 24-3 home, 33-16 ATS) in the final 32 games of the regular season, a win on Tuesday night feels like a must. The Celtics are 5.5 games behind Cleveland and the teams will only meet once more after Tuesday. Oddsmakers see tonight’s game as a relative toss-up, listing the Cavs as slight home favorites. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:40 pm ET at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland.

Celtics vs Cavaliers Odds

The Celtics vs Cavaliers odds show Cleveland as 1.5-point home chalk and -130 on the moneyline (which is as long as -126 at FanDuel). The Celtics come back as +105 road underdogs in Tuesday’s NBA odds.

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The total has moved up a full point since opening at 236.5 last night, currently sitting at 237.5 with -115 juice on the over, which indicates it could move up further before tip-off.

Both teams are fairly healthy heading into Tuesday’s game. The Cavaliers’ injury reports lists Isaac Okoro (5.8 PPG, 2.1 RPG,1.6 APG) and Dean Wade (6.0 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 1.6 APG) as out. Boston’s injury report doesn’t have a single name on it at the moment.

The teams have split their pair of meetings so far this season with each winning by a bucket or two on their home court. Back on Dec. 1, the Celtics were poised to take a 2-0 lead in the season series with the Cavs, leading by as many as 14 late in the third quarter and taking a 12-point lead into the fourth. Spurred by 35 points from Donovan Mitchell (including 20 in the final quarter), Cleveland came all the way back for a 115-111 victory.

Jayson Tatum had a team-high 33 points in a losing effort for the Celtics in a game that Jaylen Brown missed due to injury.

Both Teams Inconsistent in January

While the C’s and Cavs remain the top teams in the East both in terms of record and point differential, neither had a banner month in January. From Dec. 7 to Jan. 27, the Celtics went just 11-10 straight-up and didn’t win more than three games in a row. But they enter Tuesday on a three-game win streak, taking down the Bulls (122-100 home), Pelicans (118-116 away), and 76ers (118-110).

The Cavaliers started the month of January with four straight wins but went just 6-5 the rest of the way. That included their first three-game losing streak of the entire season. But like the Celtics, Cleveland appears to have exited that rough patch, winning four straight entering play on Tuesday.

BOS vs CLE Player Props

NBA player props from DraftKings on Feb. 4. Check out SBD’s DraftKings review for the latest promo codes.

Tatum (26.9 PPG, 8.9 RPG, 5.7 APG) leads the point total on Tuesday night at 25.5, one higher than Mitchell (23.7 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 4.7 APG) at 24.5. Brown (23.3 PPG, 6.1 RPG, 4.8 APG) is the only other player over 20 with a point total of 21.5 O/U. Tatum and Mitchell also have the highest three-point total at 3.5 apiece.

Cleveland’s twin towers, Jarrett Allen (13.7 PPG, 10.0 RPG) and Evan Mobley (18.3 PPG, 9.1 RPG, 2.9 APG), have the highest rebound total, both at 9.5. Darius Garland (21.7 PPG, 2.5 RPG, 6.9 APG) has the highest assist total at 6.5.

Boston Celtics vs Cleveland Cavaliers Prediction

This is the same spread as when the teams met in Cleveland at the start of December, and that surprises me. Cleveland doesn’t just lead the NBA in terms of win/loss record, the Cavs also have the single-best ATS record in the entire league (33-16), while the Celtics have the second-worst (19-30-1).

I’m not saying I’d be prepared to back the Cavaliers as favorites in a seven-game series with home court advantage but it’s clear that they’re taking the regular season very seriously, and opening a 6.5-game lead on the C’s with just over a third of the season left to play would all but sew up home-court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs.

This will have the feel of a playoff game in Cleveland tonight and I expect the Cavs to keep doing what they’ve done all season: record another W at home.

BOS vs CLE pick: Cavaliers moneyline (-126) at FanDuel