The Cleveland Cavaliers close out a messy West Coast road trip on Tuesday when they play the Portland Trail Blazers.
The pregame narrative: Cleveland has lost four of its last five games and will be without Donovan Mitchell tonight. I’m backing Portland to cover an alternate spread in a +300 wager, which also features prop bets on Darius Garland and Max Strus.
Check out my Cavaliers vs. Trail Blazers SGP predictions for March 25.
Cavaliers vs. Trail Blazers predictions
Parlay: Trail Blazers +10.5 | Garland 24+ points | Strus 2+ threes (+300)
Trail Blazers +10.5 (-245): Cleveland has lost four of five, and Portland has won four of five. At the risk of sounding reductive, that seems like a good place to start.
Of course, these teams couldn’t be more different when you zoom out. The Cavs (57-14) have the NBA’s best record, while the Trail Blazers are an unimpressive 32-40.
But Portland fights tooth and nail on a nightly basis and is one of the league’s best teams ATS:
- 40-31-1 ATS (third-best in NBA)
- 20-11-0 ATS as home underdogs
- 13-2 vs. a +10.5 spread in last 15
The Blazers played the Cavs in Cleveland on March 2 and blew a 17-point lead before eventually falling 133-129 in overtime. Mitchell didn’t play in that game and I expect a similar result with him sidelined tonight.
NBA SGP legs
Garland 24+ points (-109): Garland stunk the joint out against Portland in that overtime thriller, scoring just 13 points on 4-of-16 shooting. It was ugly, but I’m willing to look past it for a few reasons.
- Garland has scored 20+ points in each of his other five games without Mitchell this season (25+ points four times).
- Portland allows the seventh-most points per game to opposing point guards (25.22), per Fantasy Pros.
Garland’s recent form would suggest he’s a fade candidate tonight, as he’s gone under this mark in five straight games. But he still averaged 15.2 shots, and Mitchell was on the court each time.
A higher uptick in volume should push this over the finish line.
Strus 2+ threes (-305): I’ll be pretty miffed if Strus is the one to sink this SGP.
The shooting guard checks all the boxes to reach this milestone, shooting 40.5% from deep in March and going 8-4 against this line.
Strus takes 77% of his shots from deep, which ranks in the 95th percentile of all NBA players, according to Cleaning the Glass.
The Blazers rank 21st in opponent 3-point rate (36.3%), and Strus went 4-for-11 against them on March 2.
Cavaliers vs. Trail Blazers predictions made at 11:15 a.m. ET 03/25/2025.
Avery joined NorthStar Gaming as an intern in 2022 before stepping into a full-time role soon after. He loves betting on and analyzing golf — mainly because it’s easier than actually playing — but is a fan of all sports, from the NFL to the UFC.