Monday's NBA slate is a busy one with 11 games on the schedule. There are two exciting games on the national TV front: Denver Nuggets vs. Dallas Mavericks (8 p.m. ET) and Chicago Bulls vs. Los Angeles Lakers (10:30 p.m. ET on NBA TV).
However, our NBA analysts are singularly focused on one game between two Eastern conference teams: Boston Celtics vs. Cleveland Cavaliers. See how our writers are approaching this matchup below.
Monday NBA Picks & Predictions
Celtics vs. Cavaliers
Joe Dellera: The Cavaliers are without Collin Sexton for the foreseeable future after he suffered a torn meniscus. With him missing from the surging Cavaliers we are turning to the rest of the team to pick up the slack. Dan Titus and I discussed who we thought would see an increased role and Ricky Rubio is a prime candidate.
Rubio has seen a significant uptick in his usage and should continue playing about 30 minutes per game. Including the game Sexton was injured, Rubio has been a magnet for not only assists but rebounds and given his stature in the rotation, he should be able to rack up these peripheral stats aside from his points.
His Rebounds + Assists line is set for 9.5, a number he’s cleared in each of these four games without Sexton. Even with Sexton this season, Rubio has successfully crossed this threshold in 10 of 14 games.
I’ll take him to continue performing against the Celtics.
Celtics vs. Cavaliers
Raheem Palmer: The two-game series is a newer scheduling quirk introduced during the pandemic to reduce the travel during last season’s condensed schedule and typically there is an advantage for teams who lost the first of the two game stretch.
The Boston Celtics lost the first of their two game series against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night and now they meet again with Al Horford and Josh Richardson returning to the lineup. Horford’s absence was particularly felt Saturday night dealing with the Cavaliers bigs in Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley.
Nonetheless, the Celtics also blew a 12 point halftime lead on Saturday night so they have an edge in this matchup.
Last season the team that lost the first game of the two-game series was 27-14-12 (65.9%) against the spread so there’s an edge here.
Let’s lay the 2.5-points with the Celtics.
