The Detroit Pistons made headlines Monday by trading for Clippers star Blake Griffin, but they'll be short-handed when they host the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET, TNT).
The Cavs are six-point road favorites, four more than the opening of -2. The over-under is at 217, down from 218.5.
Griffin was sent to Detroit, but won't play Tuesday, so the Pistons' rotation will be piece-mealed together.
With questions aplenty, there's no better place to get advice than from SportsLine NBA expert Galin "The Dragon" Dragiev -- he has nailed 13 of his past 15 NBA against the spread picks.
Part of his success: Dragiev, a veteran fantasy sports writer, learned to predict the outcome of the game before determining how success trickles down to individual players, so he spent more time studying team outcomes than projecting individual players.
Now, he has locked in a strong point-spread pick for Cavaliers-Pistons, and you can only see it over at SportsLine.
Dragiev knows few teams have failed to meet Vegas' expectations more than the Cavs (29-19), who are 14-32-2 against the spread this season, including 8-28-2 as the favorite and 3-12 as a road favorite.
But they've had the Pistons' number, blowing them out 116-88 in Detroit on Nov. 28 before cruising to a 121-104 win in Cleveland on Sunday. Both margins would have easily covered Tuesday's spread.
The Pistons have lost eight straight to fall to No. 9 in the Eastern Conference. Though they'll be without Griffin and the traded-away Tobias Harris and Avery Bradley, they still have Andre Drummond down low. He's averaging 14.7 points, 15.1 rebounds and 1.4 blocks.
Will the Cavs overwhelm the short-handed Pistons to win their third straight, or can Detroit keep it close? Dragiev is leaning under, and he has an even stronger pick for one side of the spread.
So what side of Cavaliers-Pistons do you need to be all over? Visit SportsLine now to see Dragiev's strong ATS pick for Cavs-Pistons, all from the expert on a 13-2 NBA run.
