Tip-off: Monday, 7:05 p.m. ET
Line: Cleveland -12, Total: 216.5

The Cavaliers look to make it five straight wins with a home victory over the struggling Nuggets on Monday night.

Here is the BetDSI Sportsbook season betting preview for the Cleveland Cavaliers:

Denver started off its current three-game road trip by destroying Indiana 108-87 on Friday, but was crushed two days later 109-93 at New York. The Nuggets have now lost seven of their past eight contests (SU and ATS). Meanwhile, Cleveland is coming off a 127-94 blowout of the Hawks, giving the club four straight SU victories (3-1 ATS). These two teams already met this season on Nov. 7 in Denver, where the Cavaliers won 110-101 as 6.5-point road favorites. That marks their third straight win in this series, which have all come by at least eight points. Since 1996, the Nuggets are 21-8 ATS in road games after trailing in their previous game by 20+ points. The Cavaliers are also just 6-16 ATS in November games over the past two years. However, Cleveland is an impressive 17-5 ATS in home games after two straight contests where they made at least 50% of their shots since 1996. PF Danilo Gallinari (rest) and PG Nate Robinson (rest) are both likely to take the game off to protect their surgically repaired knees, while SG Randy Foye is questionable due to his own knee injury. For Cleveland, SG Matthew Dellavedova (knee) remains out indefinitely.

Will the Nuggets keep the score within single-digits on Monday? For the answer, connect to The Platinum Sheet for all the Expert picks throughout the entire 2014-15 season. StatFox Forecaster has a 61% ATS record (28-18) in featured games this season. StatFox Scott is also off to a great start to the 2014-15 campaign at 64% ATS (9-5) in his Best Bets, while StatFox Gary is close behind at 60% ATS (9-6). StatFox Brian is 60% ATS (6-4) on NBA Best Bets in November.

The Nuggets are really struggling to find themselves at this point of the season, and are going to need more out of some of their big name players. PF Kenneth Faried (12.0 PPG, 7.9 RPG) was given a huge contract extension this offseason, but hasn’t progressed on either side of the floor the way that Denver had hoped. He’ll need to turn things around this season and has a favorable matchup against a Cleveland team that doesn’t defend the power forward position well. Another player who has been disappointing is SG Aaron Afflalo (11.6 PPG, 3.1 RPG). The Nuggets acquired the shooting guard after a career-high 18.2 PPG in 2013-2014, but he is just not shooting the ball confidently (43% FG) and needs to be more aggressive going forward. The only player this team can seemingly rely on is PG Ty Lawson (16.0 PPG, 8.0 APG, 1.1 SPG), who had 17 points and nine assists in Sunday’s loss to the Knicks. Lawson will be up against a very poor defender in Kyrie Irving, so he should be productive in this game. The Nuggets will really have no chance of hanging around in this one unless Lawson comes through with a special performance. They’ll also need to perform at a much higher level defensively, as they are allowing 108.2 PPG (27th in NBA).

The Cavaliers have found a rhythm at this point in the NBA season, winning four straight games and doing so in convincing fashion. SF LeBron James (27.8 PPG, 6.8 APG, 6.4 RPG) has scored 32+ points in three straight contests, including 32 points, seven assists and six rebounds in a 127-94 victory over the Hawks on Saturday. The offense is finally clicking for the Cavs, averaging 107.9 PPG (3rd in NBA) this season thanks to four straight games with at least 110 points. PG Kyrie Irving (22.4 PPG, 5.0 APG, 1.4 SPG) has also found a way to play alongside James the past couple of contests. Irving has a tough matchup with Lawson in this game, so he’ll need to be focused on the defensive end and not just worry about the offense. Lawson could really give this team nightmares if nobody can step up and check him. The Cavaliers are going to need to find a better way of getting C Kevin Love (17.1 PPG, 10.3 RPG) involved this season. Love has taken just 13.3 shots per game this season, which is not enough for such a dynamic scorer. He is being extremely underutilized within this offense, which was expected when he was traded to Cleveland. There was, however, no reason for the Cavs to give up the assets they traded for Love if they aren’t going to feed him the ball more often. Irving will need to do whatever he can to make sure everybody on the team is enough touches.