NBA and NHL in Full Force; Outstanding College Basketball Slate

Happy Friday everyone. The countdown to March Madness has begun, as has the playoff runs in the NBA and NHL. The NHL is a little tighter as they don’t have half the teams giving up like the NBA, but at least that adds a little more to handicap. Tonight, we have a possible ECF preview and a top-10 College Basketball matchup.

While we give out one of our NBA plays for free tonight in the newsletter, our additional NBA plays/props, full Cognizant card, College Basketball and NHL plays are all worth an upgrade at the current $99/year plan as you don’t want to miss weekly NFL and CFB week picks this fall. One $99 price (or $9.99/month) will get you every single newsletter unlocked, all our trends and picks and access to me of course.

Also make sure you listen to the weekly Betting with Bearman podcast. This week, VSiN Hardwood Hoops Host Zach Cohen joined the podcast to break down the NBA’s second half and give some CBB futures to play

We are excited about our affiliate deal with our new friends at Betr. Through our partnership, you can sign up now and get $10 free and then a 50% deposit match up to $200 by using the Betting with Bearman sign up link, right here. We are also going to be sending out Betr plays every newsletter.

Make sure to check on Twitter/X for weekend picks

Cleveland Cavaliers at Detroit Pistons (-6.5, 227.5)

This could well be a preview, in terms of teams, playing for Eastern Conference supremacy this summer, but the pieces are a little different today than we'd hope them to be in June.

Donovan Mitchell (groin) will be in street clothes while a bunch of his friends (namely James Harden, but also Dean Wade, Dennis Schroder, and Keon Ellis) are also on the injury report. As a result, the road team is catching a justifiably big number.

Could we be looking at a "lose the battle, win the war" type of situation?

The Cavs are in a dog fight for seeding in the East with the 2-3-4 teams separated by just two games and homecourt advantage in the second round a pretty nice carrot dangling out there for whoever can secure the two-spot. Cleveland would love to win this game, but these two teams meet again on Tuesday, a spot in which they may be more well-equipped to compete with the best team in the conference and gain confidence that they can hang with anyone.

They are already missing Mitchell, so my thought here is that they could pull back on some of their primary players who are at less than full strength. He's not listed on the injury report because he's not in danger of sitting, but Evan Mobley has been on a minutes restriction since returning and we don't have any news about that being lifted.

Rebounding against Detroit is an uphill battle on any night (third highest rebound rate in the NBA) and racking up 8+ in under 30 minutes is a tough task. The Pistons haven't been out-rebounded in a game since January 29th (that was like eight-feet of snow ago for those of us living on the East Coast) and I'm not sure that changes course tonight.

Isaiah Stewart remains out, but Paul Reed (20 rebounds in 56 minutes over the past week) has been a fine replacement and takes up space next to Jalen Duren. Space. That's the key. Mobley isn't chasing down rebounds right now and that means that he needs to not only stay on the court, but win in the trenches, the spot in which Detroit thrives.

Since the All-Star Break, Mobley's average distance of rebound is down 32.1%. I locked in under 7.5 rebounds this morning on DraftKings at -135, a little pricy, but 17 cents cheaper than other books opened, so I'm OK with the value I got and its always important to shop, shop, shop.
Mobley u7.5 rebounds

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