NBA Basketball Preview: Cleveland Cavaliers at Indiana Pacers

It’s been a rough few years for the Cleveland Cavaliers. In fact, nothing has really gone well since their premature exit from the playoffs in 2010. After that season LeBron James announced his infamous decision to move to Miami as a free agent and Cleveland was left to rebuild. They suffered through a couple of miserable years that included a brutal 26 game losing streak in 2010-2011. Of course in the NBA hope springs eternal and now Cleveland is heading in the right direction led by the former #1 pick in the draft Kyrie Irving. There’s considerable optimism in Cleveland with some suggesting that the Cavs could be the most improved team in the NBA this season.

The extent of Cleveland’s improvement remains to be seen but they’re definitely facing a tough challenge here as they hit the road to take on the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers have most of their roster from last year back yet for whatever reason they’re not getting a lot of preseason love. That’s a huge mistake in our view–they play arguably the nastiest team defense in the NBA and have a newly emerging superstar in Paul George. They have a few areas in which they need to improve–they could use a more consistent scoring threat to take pressure off of George (hopefully Danny Granger can regain some of his form) and need better backcourt playmaking and outside shooting. These areas notwithstanding, the Pacers are a handful.

Tough scheduling spot for Cleveland further benefits the home team. Cavs played a ‘winable’ game in Charlotte on Friday night while Indiana was idle. Cleveland has been a decent road investment in recent years (41-31 run pending Friday’s result) but this isn’t a great tactical matchup for them. Hard to play a tough, physical defensive oriented team like the Pacers in any situation but especially on back to back nights with fatigue a factor. Pacers have won four straight in the series covering three and we look for them to do it against here. The Cavs will have plenty of improvement this season but they’re not ready for this class in this spot.

BET INDIANA PACERS -9 OVER CLEVELAND CAVALIERS