Cavaliers vs. Nets Tuesday NBA play-in tournament injury report, odds: Spread may close Brooklyn as 10-point favorite; Celtics rooting for Cleveland?

While they would never say such a thing publicly, be assured that the Eastern Conference second-seeded Boston Celtics are rooting for the Cleveland Cavaliers to upset the Nets in Brooklyn in tonight's NBA play-in tournament game as that would mean Boston would face the Cavs instead of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and perhaps Ben Simmons in Round 1 of the playoffs. Tonight's spread has been rising since its open and is up to Nets -9.5 – it could reach double digits by tip. Click here for model picks. 

The winner of tonight's game will visit Boston in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference playoffs on Saturday. The loser will host on Friday the winner of Wednesday's Charlotte at Atlanta matchup for the No. 8 seed and a first-round matchup vs. Miami on the line.

Considering the Nets may see the debut of Simmons this weekend and that Brooklyn is a +350 second-favorite to win the East with Cleveland at +8000, yeah, the Celtics would rather face the Cavs. Boston is +430 to win the East.

Perhaps one reason this spread jumped again this morning is that the Cavs will not get back All-Star center Jarrett Allen – an anchor to their defense – from a broken finger and that the Nets will have guard Goran Dragic back from health protocols. It is hard to see Cleveland winning tonight without the former Net Allen, who averaged 16.1 points, 10.8 rebounds and 1.3 blocks this season. He hasn't played since March 6 but might be back for Round 1 if Cleveland gets there.

Dragic was stuck in his hotel room in Atlanta for almost a week because of his COVID symptoms but has been cleared. He might not play a ton and Dragic isn't what he used to be but still a solid contributor and playoff veteran who averaged 7.3 points and 4.8 assists in 16 games since joining the Nets off waivers.

Brooklyn was 3-1 vs. Cleveland this season. The teams just played April 8 in Brooklyn and the Nets prevailed 118-107 behind 36 points from Durant. In the 19 regular-season games after he returned from injury, Durant averaged 31.1 points, 7.6 assists and 7.4 rebounds. The Cavs were 19-22 on the road during the season. Brooklyn went just 20-21 at home and only covered the spread in 10 of the 41, although Irving didn't play in most of them.

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