The 44-10, East-leading Cleveland Cavaliers are so good that their greatness has been taken for granted. In the 10 games prior to the All-Star break, they weren’t talked about much, but over that span, they went 8-2 with the league’s second-best net rating, a plus-14.6 mark that would be the best in NBA history across a full season. Such is the case when two teams — Cleveland in the East, Oklahoma City in the West — are so good that history becomes normalized.
Unironically, it might’ve been Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell’s fault that the first iteration of the All-Star tournament wasn’t great; in the final game, Shaq’s OG’s got off to an 11-0 start because Mitchell was firing away recklessly from deep. In that final, he was zero-for-seven from the field and zero-for-four from three.
Thankfully for Cleveland, Mitchell’s better in the games that count, such as tonight’s 7 p.m. clash against the Brooklyn Nets. This season, Mitchell is averaging 23.9 points per game while shooting a career-high 39.1% from beyond the three-point line.
On DraftKings Sportsbook, the Cavaliers are 13-point favorites and the total is set for 225.5. Below, I’ve highlighted my favorite prop bets centered around Spida.
Best Donovan Mitchell Prop Bets on DraftKings Sportsbook
Donovan Mitchell Most Points (+150)
I’m typically wary of touching points props in games with lopsided lines, out of fear that Mitchell may sit for the majority of the fourth quarter with a Cleveland victory secure. After all, Mitchell played just five minutes of the fourth quarter in each of the past two games, both Cavaliers blowouts. But he still made enough of an impact in those games, scoring 23 and 21 points, respectively. Cameron Johnson — the only Net with a realistic chance of topping Mitchell in scoring — has scored more than 20 points just 16 times this season, and in each of the past two games, Kenny Atkinson has pulled Darius Garland and Evan Mobley either before or at the same time as Mitchell, so as long as his usage and efficiency is near his average, he has solid odds of being the game’s leading scorer.
Brooklyn’s defense is excellent; in its last 10 games, it has the league’s best defensive rating. However, the Nets are somehow still a net-negative team because they can’t score, and it’s not like Cleveland’s defense is a slouch either. Over their last 10 games, the Cavaliers have the fifth-best defensive rating in basketball, and their defense has improved by 6.6 points per 100 possessions in the two games since adding De’Andre Hunter to the lineup at the trade deadline. It might be a low-scoring, sloppy game, which should benefit the best pure scorer on either team.
