NBA: Cleveland at Boston Betting Preview
Lost in all of the talk about the elbow injury to LeBron James has been the fact that the Boston Celtics have thoroughly outplayed the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first two games of their second round NBA Eastern Conference playoff series. Game 3 is set for Friday evening and oddsmakers at Sportsbook.com seem to be missing the point as well, positioning the Cavaliers as 1-point road favorites.
It was just two years ago; General Manager Danny Ainge brought together Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to play with Paul Pierce. This was matched by immediate success as the trio blended skills perfectly on the way to a NBA championship.
But that was then. Now KG cannot play a full season as his once youthful legs are betraying him. Allen can still run an opponent crazy going thru a maze of screens, but the quick-triggered jumper is not as reliable as the old days. Pierce was main force in the championship season and he was "the man" whenever Boston needed a clutch basket. Today he is more of a role player, an additional scorer, not someone who can be counted on regularly.
It's a new era in Bean-Town and Rajon Rondo is the new leader. The Celtics now go where Rondo takes them.
After a disappointing regular season that left Boston as the fourth seed, The Three Amigos are trying to keep up with the speedy Rondo and are 5-2 SU and ATS in the postseason. The Celtics have been playing tremendous basketball, really only having the equivalent of four less than desirable quarters of hoops among its seven games that accounted for both losses.
Rondo is not about numbers, he's about results. His outside shooting is below average, he still goes "Road Runner" fast and commits more turnovers than necessary, but he's smarter player today.
Rondo finds the open man sooner, he will make a steal and be gone two steps before his opponent even reacts and runs down a rebound like he knew the angle of the miss just as the shooter released the ball.
After earning split in Cleveland, Rondo and his teammates truly believe they are better than the Cavaliers and he will look to abuse more Cavs defenders this weekend in front of the home folks.
Sportsbook.com has Boston as single point home underdogs and the Celtics are 8-2-1 ATS when catching 4.5-point or fewer points at TD Garden and will try to keep lethargic Cleveland squad playing the same way.
When Cleveland fans hear about elbow problems, baseball is what usually comes to mind. It's quite evident however that LeBron James is laboring with this issue. Still, this doesn't mean the rest of the team can't make shots and play defense. The Cavs have been outplayed for 6 ½ quarters in this series and everyone will find out a lot in Game 3 about a team that is 7-3 ATS off a double digit home loss.
Thanks to Reduced Juice Fridays, you can bet on this game at -105 at Sportsbook.com.
NBA: Phoenix at San Antonio
The Spurs have to win four of their next five games to advance to West Finals and even having its three stars seemingly healthy might not be enough to make that occur. It seems that Phoenix has all of its pieces meshing at this point in time and appears to be a real threat to the Lakers in the Western Conference. With the Spurs in a must-win spot at home in Game 3 of this series, Sportsbook.com oddsmakers have listed San Antonio as a 6.5-point favorite.
Basketball is five on five with every player having a job to do. Though Tony Parker is coming off the bench, he's playing starter minutes. (36:05 in Game 2) And even if you take bench scoring in the literal sense, San Antonio was outscored 31-24 by players that came off the Phoenix chairs, which was essentially the difference in 110-102 final.
Parker, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili have been carrying this franchise for years, unfortunately they can't do it alone and need more help. This helps explain an 11-25 ATS record revenging a road loss over the last two seasons. Richard Jefferson was more effective in the last contest, but Antonio McDyess and Matt Bonner were non-factors.
Phoenix on the other hand showed the depth of the Chinese Red Army. The Suns starters were a step slow, out of rhythm and playing mediocre basketball as they trailed 30-21 after the first quarter.
Coach Alvin Gentry had just pleaded with his team to give more effort and in came Jared Dudley, Channing Frye and Louis Amundson. Phoenix exploded with increased energy, scoring, rebounding and playing tighter defense. The starters watched as their teammates led the surge on San Antonio and by halftime the game was knotted up at 51.
Dudley in particular was the star of stars. "He was my player of the game -- he made some huge plays for us," Steve Nash said. "He did a bunch of things that more than anything gave us energy and confidence and changed the game and enabled us to come back and tie at halftime just because of his energy and spirit."
San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich seconded that notion: "Jared Dudley changed the whole game. He came in and was a monster. He was committed to the boards, and it was infectious."
The Spurs need this type of player to help the power trio against a Suns' team that is shining bright with a 20-4 SU and 17-6-1 ATS record since Mar.14. San Antonio is six-point favorites with total of 205.5 and is 8-3 ATS off a straight up and spread loss. This is a conflict they need to take control of throughout and are 10-3-1 UNDER at home vs. teams with a winning road record.
Go to Sportsbook.com now and bet this game at -105 juice, thanks to Reduced Juice Fridays.
