Cleveland will take on Detroit and will both be gunning for a victory on 12/26/2020 at 7:00 PM when they meet in a game matchup.
CLEVELAND vs DETROIT
When: 12/26/2020 7:00 PM
Where:
| ROT | TEAM | PS | OU | ML |
| 504 | CLEVELAND | -2.5 (-110) | 218.5 (-110) | 120 -140 |
| 504 | DETROIT |
TV: 7:00 PM
LINE: -2.5
PREDICTION: DETROIT , CLEVELAND
Oddsmakers currently have the DETROIT listed as -2.5 point favorites versus the CLEVELAND, while the game’s total is sitting at 218.5.
| Tony’s Pick | TEAM |
| CLEVELAND | 120 |
Lottery picks Collin Sexton and Darius Garland led the Cleveland Cavaliers to a season-opening victory.
With Kevin Love nursing a calf injury, the young backcourt may need to replicate that production when Cleveland visits Detroit on Saturday.
Sexton, the eighth pick of the 2018 draft, had 27 points and Garland, the fifth pick of the 2019 draft, added 22 as the Cavaliers defeated Charlotte 121-114 on Wednesday.
“You look at the combination and how they can play with one another and the pressure they can put on the defenses,” Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “But not only did they have 49 points, they had 11 assists between them and they took care of the basketball. They’re both extremely gifted but they also competed on the defensive end of the floor.”
Cleveland’s offense was humming against the Hornets, as it shot 52.9 percent from the field and assisted on 34 of 46 made field goals.
“We’re trying to play to each other’s strengths,” Bickerstaff said. “We’re still learning one another chemistry-wise. But we’re passing the ball to the open man as much as we possibly can.”
Bickerstaff wasn’t thrilled with his team’s second-half performance. Charlotte scored 70 points after halftime and shot 50 percent for the game.
“I think we were unselfish the majority of the night,” Bickerstaff said. “Defensively, I think we were really good in spots. The second half, I felt it got away from us a little bit. We played into their hands and allowed them to take uncontested threes.”
Love’s status for Saturday’s game is in doubt, but Larry Nance Jr. filled in very well at power forward. Nance had 13 points, 13 rebounds, eight assists, three steals and two blocks against Charlotte.
The Pistons, who will be playing their home opener on Saturday, lost their opener to Minnesota 111-101 on Wednesday after leading most of the way. The Timberwolves scored the last 11 points and outscored visiting Detroit 31-16 in the fourth quarter.
“We had a lot of bad turnovers in that last portion of it and then defensively, we had some huge breakdowns,” coach Dwane Casey said.
Killian Hayes, the No. 7 pick of this year’s draft, was thrown into the fire. He committed four turnovers in 21 minutes, including back-to-back giveaways in the final quarter that led to a momentum shift.
“That’s also the mark of a young point guard. How do you close an NBA game?” Casey said. “The intensity level goes up, the ‘want-to’ goes up. Everything gets a little bit harder in those situations. It was a great learning experience for us as a group.”
Detroit had the biggest roster turnover of any team in the league and it showed in the late going. A pair of free agent acquisitions, Josh Jackson (team-high 19 points, six rebounds) and Mason Plumlee (14 points, eight rebounds, six assists) made auspicious debuts with the club.
“We’ve been together two weeks, 11 new faces,” Casey said. “There’s a lot of nuances we’re going to miss until we get to know each other.”
The teams split their four meetings last season. Cleveland big man Andre Drummond will be playing against his former team for the first time. The Pistons dealt him to the Cavaliers just prior to last February’s trade deadline.
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