NBA: Memphis Grizzlies VS Cleveland Cavaliers Pick and Predictions 02/02/2023

Game: 7:30 PM ET,  Thursday, February 2nd, 2023

Venue:  Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, Cleveland, Ohio

TV: TNT

Grizzlies: 32-18, 2nd place Western Conference

Cavaliers: 31-22, 5th place Eastern Conference

BetMGM:  Point Spread:  Cavaliers -6.5, O/U 233.5

PointsBet: Point Spread: Cavaliers -5.5, O/U 223.5

Fanduel: Point Spread: Cavaliers -6, O/U 223.5

Grizzlies: PG Ja Morant, SG Desmond Bane, SF Dillon Brooks, PF Jaren Jackson JR, C Brandon Clarke

Cavaliers: PG Darius Garland, SG Donovan Mitchell, SF Isaac Okoro, PF Evan Mobley, C Jarrett Allen

A West VS East matchup between two very good and sort of deep teams.  The West team is the 2nd place Memphis Grizzlies.. And they are very good. You can tell by their record, you can tell by their swagger… but they had a shot to overcome the Denver Nuggets for first place… and fell apart right when they were at the precipice.  At press time they are 2 ½ games back from 1st.. A big change form ½ a game where they were last week.  The East team are the 5th place Cleveland Cavaliers.  This season 2nd in the West and 5th in the East may be kind of equal since the East is stronger than the West… both in wins and in star players. The Cavaliers have a great starting five.. It is around the “depth area” that they have to worry. At the depth point the immediate names are SG Caris LaVert and SF Cedi Osman.. And the results are sometimes very good and sometimes not even noticeable…. It's nice that the Cavaliers have PF Kevin Love and PG Ricky Rubio… It would also be nice if the cavs had any two other players that were built to play in this century. The great betting opportunity here is all about the very recent trends.

The Memphis Grizzlies have won 5 of their last 10 games, but suffered a very bad 5-game losing streak until it was snapped by a 112-100 win over the Indiana Pacers.  In that win the Grizz got a power triple double out of PG Ja Morant with 27 points, 10 rebounds, and 15 ASSISTS.  From PF Jaren Jackson JR they got 28 points, 8 rebounds and 1 assists with 5 BIG BLOCKED SHOTS!!! Few teams need much more.  The worry for the Grizzlies was yet another TERRIBLE shooting night out of SF Dillon Brooks who had 5 points and shot 1 of 7 from 3 point land.  Dillon has had several bad shooting games in a row.  If I didn’t know any better he would need a seat on the bench until he finds 35% +.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have won only 4 of their last 10 games as they have tried to overcome a Donovan Mitchell injury. They lost their last game 100-97 against the Miami Heat.. which is not just a loss, but also an indictment since they only scored 97 points in a league where almost every team is above 111 points per game. SG Donovan Mitchell only had 19 points & 9 assists… I say only because he is working himself back in from injury and it is very low from Donovan’s highs.  PF Evan Mobley was the only Cav to get more points and he only got 19 points… In todays; NBA the boxscore of a winning team has multiple if not 3 players scoring 20 points or higher.

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The Grizzlies are 7th in scoring with 116.7 per game, 2nd in rebounds with 48.5 per game. On defense they are 9th in allowing points with 112.3 points allowed per game. They are a smart +4.4 points per game.  They can be certain of the postseason if they keep this +/- alive.

The Cavaliers are 27th in scoring with 111.2 points per game, 25th in rebounds per game with 42. On defense they rank #1!!! While holding opponents to 106.8 points per game from opponents while allowing 106.8 points per game.  The Cavs defense is ready… they will need the Cavs offense to sprout wildly to gain ground before the playoffs.  The combination of PF Evan Mobely and C Jarrett Allen is a defensive Mitzvah!!

Our prediction for Thursday, February 2nd is….  Grizz 118 - Cavs 117

Bet on the Cavs.  They will be underdogs. The Grizzlies have a great leader in Ja Morant but that guy can;t make up for the missing Center which the cavs will be able to take advantage of. 

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Memphis is 2-0 ARS versus Cleveland the last 3 seasons.

Grizzlies:  SG Desmond Bane.  This team relies on Desmond to do a lot… Only he has only been doing “enough” as of late.  That may be the reason for some of the recent losses.  Wake up Desmond. Desmond has to ”get his” regardless of what Ja Morant gets or even if Ja is playing.

Cavaliers: PF Evan Mobley.  Mobley is the key.  Will he ever dominate from the Power Forward position… Mitchell, Garland, and Allen are doing their part.  We would really like to see a few dominating games out of Mobley.. Or maybe he isn’t a long term solution at this spot?

Grizzlies: Taylor “rough around the edges” Jenkins

Cavaliers: JB “bickering” Bickerstaff