The No. 4 Cleveland Cavaliers will host the No. 5 Orlando Magic Saturday to kick off the 2024 NBA Playoffs at 1 p.m. ET. The Cavaliers were unable to win on the final day of the regular season and remained the No. 4 seed, while the Magic got a victory to clinch an automatic playoff berth. These teams split the four games between them this season evenly. Both Cleveland and Orlando struggled at the end of the year, with the Cavaliers going 4-6 in their last 10 and the Magic going 5-5 over the same span.
Cleveland will be without Ty Jerome, Dean Wade and Craig Porter Jr. Orlando is clean on the injury front.
The Cavaliers are 4.5-point favorites according to DraftKings Sportsbook, with the total set at 207.5. Cleveland is -192 on the moneyline while Orlando is +160.
Magic vs. Cavaliers, 1 p.m. ET
Pick ATS: Cavaliers -4.5
The Magic were one of the best teams against the number this season with a 51-31 ATS mark, while the Cavaliers finished the season with a 38-42-2 ATS record. Orlando went 24-19 ATS as the underdog but that number gets considerably worse when the team hits the road. The Magic were 15-13 ATS as road underdogs during the regular season. Meanwhile, the Cavaliers went 24-27-2 ATS as favorites and 14-17-1 as home favorites.
In both Cleveland victories during the regular season series, the Cavaliers would’ve covered this spread. While the Magic have been a great team so far, this Cleveland unit is more experienced and should set the tone in Game 1. I’ll take the Cavs to cover.
Over/Under: Over 207.5
Both teams trended towards the under this season. Orlando went 37-44-1 to the over on the season while Cleveland was 40-41-1 to the over. However, this number is too low, even if this is a playoff environment where things slow down and the officials let a little more go. Only one of the three head-to-head meetings between these sides went under this number. Despite both teams being strong defensively, I’ll take the over to hit Saturday afternoon.
