basketball | Wednesday, April 26, 2023 11:11 AM (Revised at: Thursday, April 27, 2023 6:54 AM)

Cleveland Cavaliers vs New York Knicks Bet Builder Tips: 3.47 Builder for Wednesday Night

Milan Stanojic

Cleveland Cavaliers vs New York Knicks Bet Builder Tips: Wednesday, April 26th

The Cleveland Cavaliers host the New York Knicks tonight at Rocket Mortgage Field House for game 5 of the first round of the NBA playoffs. The Cavs have their backs against the wall tonight, going down 3-1 in the series but we have seen teams come back from situations like this in recent years. I’ve got a 2-piece bet builder at 3.47 odds ready for tonight’s Game 5 clash!

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Cleveland Cavaliers vs New York Knicks Preview
Cleveland Cavaliers vs New York Knicks Bet Builder

Cleveland Cavaliers vs New York Knicks Preview

Thu, 27th Apr. 00:00 (UK time)

The Cleveland Cavaliers are in a very tough spot right now but are heading back to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse attempting to get the series back on even terms. Coming back from 3-1 is certainly not impossible, we’ve seen teams do this in recent years, but I’m not sure we will see this happen in this series. The Cavs are available at 5.25 odds to come back and win the series, so if you believe in J.B. Bickerstaff and his squad, now’s the time to back them. I don’t, but I do like what they have been doing this season and I can give them some rope with their back against the wall. Who knows, maybe they even pull it off.

The Cavs have one of the best defences in the league, if not the best, allowing 106.9 points per game during the regular season and ranking top of the league in defensive rating. They have the defensive talent and teamwork to win in the playoffs, and this has translated into this series. However, despite bringing in Donovan Mitchell during the offseason, their offence is still very streaky and unreliable. They are the slowest teams in the league with a pace rating of 95.7 and have averaged just 112.3 points per game. They have also struggled to drain 3-pointers, making just 11.6 (19th in NBA) per game on a 36.7% percentage.

The Knicks made a massive jump this year, going from 11th in the east last year with a 37- 45 record to 5th with a 47-35 this year. They are in a great position to close out the series early tonight before going on to playing the winner of the Heat vs Bucks series. The Knicks’ acquisition of Jalen Brunson has done wonders for their offence this year, ranking 3rd in offensive rating and averaging 116.0 points per game during the season. Considering their slow pace and low number of possessions, these numbers are superb.

Cleveland Cavaliers vs New York Knicks Bet Builder

This has definitely been my favourite series of the first round so far with both teams playing great defence, and I hope we see a couple more games between these two sides. When you take a look at the results we have seen so far it definitely looks like the Cavs could get back into this one. The only question mark is always going to be Garland and Mitchell. If those two can get themselves going, the Knicks are in danger.

Game 1: 97-101 (Knicks W)
Game 2: 107-90 (Cavs W)
Game 3: 99-79 (Knicks W)
Game 4: 102-93 (Knicks W)

We have two very slow teams that are also playing some great defence and you can see it in the scorelines. The Cavs are against the wall in this game and I expect their defensive effort to be even higher than it has been all season. The bookmakers have set the line at 202.5, but we can expect this one to go below the 200 point mark once again.

It’s never a good thing when your franchise player struggles in the playoffs, but the Knicks have managed without getting much productivity from Julius Randle. This is how he has performed throughout the first four games.

Game 1: 19pts, 7/20 FGS, 3/10 3pts
Game 2: 22pts, 8/20 FGS, 3/7 3pts
Game 3: 11pts, 3/15 FGS, 2/10 3pts
Game 4: 7pts, 3/10 FGS, 0/4 3pts.

Randle only played 27 minutes in Game 4 compared to 34 in Game 1 and as you can see, he is inefficient and shooting the ball less and less. The Cavaliers are doing a great job at limiting his offensive output and the Knicks don’t really need him to produce his usual 25 points in order to win. The bookmakers have set his scoring line to 21.5 points tonight, but even this is a bit high.