Cleveland Cavaliers +11, o/u 179 at Detroit Pistons, 7 p.m. Eastern, TNT
by Ultimatecapper.com Staff
The Detroit Pistons, solid favorites to win the Eastern Conference coming into the playoffs, have allowed the Cleveland Cavaliers to whittle this conference semi-final series down to a best-of-three. The Pistons still retain home-court advantage as the teams prepare to clash in Game 5 Wednesday night in MoTown.
Detroit won the first two games of this series at home, but the Cavs rebounded to take Games 3 and 4 in C-Town to even things up. The Pistons covered an 11-point spread in Game 1, but Cleveland has covered the last three games.
Game 4 wasn't pretty, but it could turn out to be one of those confidence builders for an up-and-coming team like the Cavs. Cleveland put on a solid defensive effort, holding Detroit to a 25-of-75 field-goal shooting performance, and made just enough plays to gut out the biggest win by this franchise in a long time.
The rebounding numbers are almost exactly even in this series. Detroit won the battle on the boards in Game 1, Cleveland in Game 2, and the last two games have been dead even.
Detroit is an NBA-best 42-4 at home this season, but the oddsmakers have evened things out, as the Pistons are 23-22 against the spread at The Palace. Detroit is 5-0 straight up at home in these playoffs, and 3-1-1 ats.
Cleveland is 21-25 on the road this season, 23-21 vs. the number, 2-3 straight up on the road in the playoffs, 3-2 ats.
Detroit won the regular-season series between these two teams 3 games to 1, and all four games stayed under the posted totals. The o/u is 2-2 in this playoff series.
The o/u is also 21-25 in Cleveland road games this season, 25-20 in Detroit home games.
Cleveland guard Larry Hughes (15.5 PPG) is still with his family following the death of his younger brother. It is unclear whether Hughes will be with the team Wednesday.
The Pistons' Rasheed Wallace turned an ankle in Game 4, but he's listed as probably for Wednesday's Game 5.
Game 6 will be played Friday back in Cleveland.
The winner of this series will run into the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals. The Heat finished off the New Jersey Nets with a series-clinching win Tuesday night.
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The Ultimatecapper Pick: Gotta take Cleveland here. Too many points!
