Cavaliers vs. Bulls Prediction and Odds for Saturday, October 22 (Back the Cavs with Mitchell in the Driver's Seat)

Zach Lavine will make his season debut today as the 1-1 Chicago Bulls host the 0-1 Cleveland Cavaliers. The Bulls got their first loss in their second game of the year last night in Washington and Cleveland lost their only game of the year on Wednesday to Toronto. 

Chicago is getting back one of their best players and Cleveland will be without one of theirs. Darius Garland will miss tonight’s game with an eye injury. Let’s check out what the oddsmakers think about this one. 

Cavaliers vs. Bulls Odds, Spread and Total

Cavaliers vs. Bulls Prediction and Pick

It’s definitely concerning that Cleveland won’t have Darius Garland for this game, but it actually could be a good thing this early in the season. Garland and Donovan Mitchell will need to figure out how to exist in the same back-court and share the ball for this team to reach its ceiling, but until they do it might be a good thing from a gambling perspective to have just one of them out there. It makes it clear that Mitchell will handle the ball and be the primary initiator on offense. Mitchell had 31 and nine assists in Game 1 when Garland only played 13 minutes. 

DeMar DeRozan has scored over 30 in both their games and now Chicago’s batman is getting Robin back in Zach Lavine, but without Mitchell and Garland logging minutes, the Cleveland wing defense should be slightly better. 

I think Mitchell will score with ease and Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen will cause problems for DeRozan at the rim and in the mid-range area where he does so much of his work. With Cleveland well rested and the Bulls on the second night of a back-to-back, I like the Cavs. 

Pick: Cleveland -120

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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change