The No. 1 seed Cleveland Cavaliers will try to maintain firm control of their Eastern Conference first-round series against the No. 8 seed Miami Heat on Saturday afternoon. Cleveland opened the series with a pair of comfortable wins over Miami at home earlier this week, including a 121-112 win on Wednesday. Miami desperately needs a win on Saturday to keep its hopes alive as a large underdog in this series. 

Tipoff from the Kaseya Center in Miami is set for 1 p.m. ET. The Cavaliers are 5.5-point favorites in the latest Heat vs. Cavaliers odds via SportsLine consensus, while the over/under for total points scored is 213. The Cavaliers are -224 on the money line (risk $224 to win $100), while the Heat are +185 (risk $100 to win $185). 

Before making any Cavaliers vs. Heat picks, check out the NBA predictions from the SportsLine Projection Model.

The SportsLine Projection Model simulates every NBA game 10,000 times and has returned well over $10,000 in profit for $100 players on its top-rated NBA picks over the past six-plus seasons. The model enters the first full week of the 2025 NBA playoffs on a sizzling 156-116 roll on all top-rated NBA picks dating back to last season, returning nearly $4,000. It is also 22-11 (67%) on top-rated NBA against-the-spread picks this season. Anyone following could have seen HUGE returns!

The model has simulated Cavaliers vs. Heat 10,000 times and the results are in. We can tell you that the model is leaning Over on the point total, and it also says one side of the spread hits well over 50% of the time!