Cavs vs. Spurs Betting Line – January 14
Carrie Stroup here with your Cavs vs. Spurs betting line for Thursday night San Antonio -6.5, Total: 197.
CLEVELAND CAVALIERS (27-9) at SAN ANTONIO SPURS (34-6)
Two of the NBA’s elite teams clash on Thursday night when the Spurs host the Cavaliers.
The Cavaliers have really started to play well in the past few weeks and the team enters this game on Thursday on an eight-game winning streak. The most recent win came in Dallas, where the team beat the Mavericks 110-107 as a 5.5-point road favorite. Cleveland has not been as good ATS as many would expect, though, going just 3-4-1 ATS in those games.
The Spurs, meanwhile, have been hot lately and their wins have been downright dominant as well. San Antonio defeated Detroit 109-99 as a 6.5-point road favorite on Tuesday. The victory was the team’s ninth straight and 16th in the past 17 games as well. The Spurs also happened to have covered in all but three of those 17 games. They will be extremely confident heading into Thursday’s contest, as they have won-and-covered in three of the past four meetings with the Cavs. Yet, that lone loss came when Cleveland won 128-125 as a one-point road favorite on Mar. 12, 2015. That game went to overtime and the Cavaliers ultimately edged it out due to Kyrie Irving’s 57-point performance.
The trends skew heavily in favor of the Spurs in this game, as Cleveland is 7-18 ATS in road games after a combined score of 215 points or more over the past three seasons and San Antonio is 16-3 ATS in home games after playing as a road favorite over the past two seasons.
PG Mo Williams (Personal) is questionable for the Cavaliers and the Spurs will enter this game at near full strength. There is always a chance that San Antonio opts to rest one of its aging superstars.
The Cavaliers have been playing extremely well recently and SF LeBron James (25.8 PPG, 7.4 RPG, 6.1 APG, 1.5 SPG) is playing his best basketball of the season. Over the past two games, James is averaging 30.5 PPG, 8.5 RPG, 8.0 APG and two steals in 39.5 MPG. He has been insanely efficient, shooting 24-for-39 from the field and 6-for-11 from three in those games. James will be eager to play in this game, as the matchup with Kawhi Leonard will bring the best out of him. People have been calling Leonard the best two-way player in the game and James will surely want to prove otherwise.
As previously mentioned, PG Kyrie Irving (16.5 PPG, 4.1 APG) had 57 points the last time these teams played. Irving is much quicker than Tony Parker is at this point in his career and he will certainly be aggressive on Thursday. He is coming off of a 22-point and nine-assist performance against the Mavericks on Tuesday and is looking better and better each game for Cleveland.
PF Kevin Love (16.2 PPG, 10.7 RPG, 2.5 APG) will, however, need to play well in this one for the Cavaliers. He has scored 15 points in back-to-back games, but he is just 10-for-30 in those contests. Love needs to start taking better shots, as his inefficiency is hurting the team offensively. One thing he has been doing well is rebounding, averaging 13.0 RPG over the past two games. If he can keep up that aggressiveness on the glass then it will really help the team going forward.
The Spurs are on fire recently and they’ll now turn their attention to a Cavaliers team that is equally as hot. If San Antonio is going to win this game then SF Kawhi Leonard (20.2 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 2.0 SPG) will need to play a spectacular game on both ends of the floor. Leonard is San Antonio’s most dangerous weapon offensively and will also be the guy that has to guard LeBron James. If he can contain James then San Antonio will have a much better shot at wining this game, but Leonard must find his shooting stroke fast. He had just seven points in 34 minutes against Dallas last game and that type of performance isn’t going to cut it here.
The guy that picked up the slack for Leonard against the Mavericks was PG Tony Parker (12.8 PPG, 5.2 APG). Parker played 32 minutes against Dallas and finished with 31 points on 13-for-19 shooting from the field. It was the best he has looked in years for San Antonio and the team could really use a good performance from him in this one. If he can find it in him to outplay Kyrie Irving then the Spurs should be able to win this game at home.
PF LaMarcus Aldridge (16.2 PPG, 9.1 RPG) could also put San Antonio over the top. He will have Kevin Love on him for a lot of this game and Aldridge’s size will give him a major advantage there. He also happens to be red-hot coming into this one, averaging 23.5 PPG and 12.0 RPG over the past two contests.
- Carrie Stroup, Gambling911.com Senior Reporter
