NBA Playoffs
Eastern Conference - Semifinals
Tip-off: Monday, 7:05 p.m. ET
Line: Cleveland -4.5, Total: 194.0

The Cavaliers and Bulls will meet at Quicken Loans Arena on Monday for Game 1 of what is a highly anticipated series. The Bulls head into this series after being pushed by a young Bucks team in the first round. Milwaukee took Chicago to Game 6, but the Bulls dominated them 120-66 as 4-point favorites in Milwaukee that game. The Cavs, meanwhile, swept the Celtics in the first round and covered in three of those contests. Cleveland has not lost since Apr. 12 and will now have home court advantage against a Chicago group that it beat SU in three of the four meetings between the teams. The key to this series for Chicago will be PF Pau Gasol. Gasol averaged 16.3 PPG, 11.8 RPG and 2.3 BPG in the opening round and now faces a Cavaliers team that is without PF Kevin Love (Shoulder) for the rest of the playoffs. He’ll need to use his size and craftiness to take advantage of a much smaller PF Tristan Thompson. If he can give the Bulls an edge at the power forward position then Chicago has a great chance of advancing. For the Cavaliers, C Timofey Mozgov is a player to watch. He must avoid foul trouble against C Joakim Noah or the Bulls will get far too many second chances on offense and the Cavs won’t have enough size to bang with the Bulls inside. One trend that stands out for Game 1 is that the Bulls are 48-31 ATS when revenging a loss versus an opponent over the past two seasons. They’re also facing a Cavaliers team that is not only without Love, but also SG J.R. Smith due to a 2-game suspension.