NBA Basketball
2026-04-26 - Cleveland Cavaliers at Toronto Raptors
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
United States : NBA Basketball Playoffs First Round Game 4
Sunday 26th April 2026 - Scheduled 1pm EST
6pm (British Time)
Preview
It was close midway through the second half of Game 3, but the Toronto Raptors used a really strong effort from the bench players to back up RJ Barrett and Scottie Barnes in their win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. The First Round Series has come alive, but the Raptors will be under some pressure to replicate what was an almost perfect Offensive performance.
Credit has to be given to Toronto for putting together really strong Offensive efforts throughout this Series, but having an outing where they hit 57% from the field and 61% of their three pointers is unlikely to be replicated. The Raptors finished the game 14-23 from the three point range and Jamison Battle came off the bench to go 4-4 from the distance, which is far surpassing his regular season averages.
Toronto will be looking to pick up from where they left off and there are two days between games to give Scottie Barnes all of the time he needs to recover from suffering a slight knock in Game 3. He was never going to leave that one with his team desperately trying to get back into this First Round Series, but the Raptors know they need Barnes at his best if they are going to pull another upset and level things up before heading over to Cleveland.
The two day rest feels more important for the Cavaliers as they look to make adjustments- the weaker Defensive players were continuously challenged and the numbers are a reminder that they failed to compete as hoped. There are plenty of Offensive improvements to be made too with the team throwing up too many threes without getting close to the success rate of the host, while Cleveland know they are not going to win too many games with just 33 points out of James Harden and Donovan Mitchell combined.
In the first two games, the Cleveland Cavaliers showed what they can do and the expectation is that we will see a much better version of them in Game 4 after being reminded of the threat posed by the Toronto Raptors.
After seeing the performance produced by the Raptors, they are dangerous to oppose, but Game 4 hosts have struggled when set as an underdog of 3.5 points or higher in the First Round of the NBA Playoffs. Those teams are just 14-26-1 against the spread over the last thirteen seasons, while lower Seeded hosts have struggled when playing after a home win.
The spread has ticked a point higher than Game 3, but that is the layers also expecting the better team to come out with much more intensity and the Cavaliers may do enough to secure the victory and take command of this First Round Series with a narrow cover of the line.
Prediction
Lay the points with the road favourite as they bid to bounce back and move into a 3-1 lead in this First Round Series.
The Pick :
Toronto Raptors 108-114 Cleveland Cavaliers
