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We’ve entered the third season of the annual South Point-lined Play of the Day competition, effective July 1.
Starting bankrolls have reset to $10,000, with the maximum bet being to win $1,000 and the minimum wager $300. Ray Brewer won the 2015-2016 season, after Taylor Bern prevailed in 2014-2015. Bern stepped away in the middle of the 2016-2017 season with a 16-12 record and $13,317 bankroll, with Mike Grimala taking his place.
Toronto Raptors plus-6.5 at Cleveland Cavaliers: $550 to win $500
The last time these teams played at full strength at Quicken Loans Arena, the Cavaliers gave 5.5 points and narrowly failed to cover in a 121-117 win.
Toronto has undoubtedly gotten better since then, picking up Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker in trade deadline moves expressly made to address the series against Cleveland that starts tonight. Cleveland, by any metric, has gotten worse.
The Cavaliers are far and away the worst defensive team left in the playoffs. The consensus is that they’ve moved past the issues, and the first-round sweep of the Pacers was proof.
But the Cavaliers didn’t exactly put on gangbusters performances. They won the four games by a combined 16 points, and gave up an average of 109 points per game.
Cleveland is likely going to come out of the Eastern Conference with LeBron James reaching his seventh straight (!!) NBA Finals. But it’s not going to be as easy as everyone expects.
The Raptors are going to test them, and they’ll start tonight.
Current Standings: Grimala (9-11, $9,633), Granger (15-19-1, $8,667), Keefer (42-36-3, $7,880), Brewer (29-30-1, $6,585)
Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.
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