For the second straight year it will be the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics squaring off in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals. Cleveland defeated Boston in 5 games during their 2017 series and advanced to the NBA Finals for a 3^rd consecutive time. Furthermore, it marked a 7^th year in a row that a team with Lebron James advanced to the NBA Finals.

At this present time (5/12), a consensus of NBA odds from all major offshore sportsbooks calculated Cleveland to be a sizable -280 money line favorite, and subsequently, Boston is at +240 to win the Eastern Conference crown.

These teams met 3 times during regular season action and Cleveland won on 2 of those occasions. However, Boston covered in 2 of those 3 games. Furthermore, 2 of those 3 head to head battles stayed under the total.

Notable Team Betting Trends

Cleveland survived their opening round series by outlasting the Indiana Pacers in 7 games. They followed that up by surprisingly sweeping the Eastern Conference #1 seed Toronto Raptors in 4-games. Nonetheless, the Cavaliers were just 4-7 ATS during those 11 postseason contests. Cleveland also saw 6 of those 11 games stay under the total. As a matter of fact, the Cavaliers have been overvalued in many games this season, and their present 36-56 ATS (39.1%) record is further indicative of such.

Boston is a perfect 7-0 SU & ATS at home during these 2018 NBA Playoffs and they’ve won by an average of 9.2 points per game. As I alluded to earlier, Boston is presently a 1.5-point home underdog in Sunday’s Game 1 of these upcoming Eastern Conference Finals. The Celtics are an extremely profitable 21-8 ATS (72.4%) as an underdog this season. Additionally, they’re an even more impressive 8-0 ATS and 7-1 straight up when they’ve been a home underdog. Here’s one more noteworthy team betting trend, since 2017, Boston is 14-2 (87.5%) over the total in home playoff games, and there were a combined 218.2 points scored per contest.

Series Prediction

This series certainly provides a lot of intrigue. I don’t think many NBA experts would’ve predicted before the season started that Boston would reach the Eastern Conference Finals without Gordon Heyward or Kyrie Irving.

Meanwhile, Lebron James is like a fine wine that keeps getting better with age. It's not a stretch to say that James has been mainly responsible for carrying the Cavaliers this far. Reminiscent of their series against Indiana and Toronto, Lebron James will be the most dominant player on both teams. I look for Cleveland to hold serve at home and in turn be able steal a game in Boston. My NBA Eastern Conference Final prediction is for Cleveland to win in 6 games.

Ross Benjamin is a top sports analyst and one of the sports industry's most respected handicappers. Follow him on Twitter: @RossBenjamin1 or visit his website at RBWins.com