It’s playoff time in the NBA on Saturday, as we begin the race to 16 victories in the quest for the Larry O’Brien Trophy. At 1:00 p.m. ET, the Toronto Raptors and Cleveland Cavaliers tip off their Eastern Conference Series at Rocket Arena on Amazon Prime Video, followed up by the Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets at 3:30 p.m. ET and Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks at 6:00 p.m. ET, with the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers meeting at 8:30 p.m. on ABC. Let’s build our bankroll with our best NBA picks & predictions for Saturday, April 18th’s game Raptors vs. Cavaliers.
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Saturday’s Best NBA Picks & Predictions: Raptors vs. Cavaliers
Odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook | All bets are for 1 unit
Toronto Raptors (+280) at Cleveland Cavaliers (-355) | O/U 220.5 (-105/-115)
The Raptors and Cavaliers meet for the fourth time in the postseason. Toronto and Cleveland met in three consecutive years from 2016 through 2018, including the Eastern Conference Finals in 2016. The Cavaliers won the ECF in six games, and they swept a pair of series in 2017 and 2018, all while LeBron James was still wearing the wine and gold in “The Land”.
While things haven’t been great for the Raptors in the postseason against the Cavaliers, Toronto hopes to use their regular-season performances in the 2025-26 season as the blueprint to springing the mild series upset. Toronto won all three meetings by at least 11 points, good for an average of 11.7 points per game (PPG), while covering each of the three games, too.
The Raptors went 22-19 on the road this season, while the Cavaliers were 27-14 at home. Toronto won three of the final four regular-season games, while going 3-1 against the spread (ATS) in that span. The Under has a 4-2 edge in the final six games for the Raps.
Looking to the Cavaliers, they picked up five wins in the final six regular-season games to close out the campaign strong, hanging onto the No. 4 seed and home-court advantage in this series. The Cavs were also 3-1 ATS in the final four outings, while the Over went 3-1 in the span, and 5-2 in the final seven games, too.
It’s tempting to take Toronto on the moneyline for the chance to nearly triple up. However, taking the Raptors catching four or more buckets is worth the play in Game 1 until the Cavaliers show that they can solve Toronto.
As far as the total, both teams finished up with plenty of offense, and the Cavs have James Harden for his first taste of play against Toronto as a member of Cleveland. Let’s go high here.
Picks: Raptors +8 (-106) & Over 219.5 Points (-110)
Joe Williams is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Joe, check out his archive and follow him @winwithjoe