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Six games on tap today beginning just after 7 pm ET.
Who's Hot, Who's Not
Sacramento Kings - This one surprised us for sure coming off a game the night before in Indiana and having the ability to beat the Bulls at home. We would normally anticipate the Kings to play flat in Cleveland on Monday.
Cleveland Cavs - The Cavs are 9-1 in their last ten games and face a Kings team concluding a 7-game road trip. The number should be -4.5 under normal circumstances, which it is (after opening at Cavs -3.5).
The one thing that still stands out is Sacramento's dominance over Cleveland in recent games (8-2 in the last ten). In the end, we are counting on Cleveland's defense wearing down these Kings.
LA Clippers @ Atlanta Hawks - Clippers will be on the 2nd night of play after facing off against the Heat to conclude a 7-game road swing. They beat the Heat 103-95. Remarkably, Atlanta is still the +3 home dog in this one (LA opened at -4.5).
We get a number of LA -5.21 without any of the other variables, such as playing in Miami last night, present. And, though the Clippers did beat the Hawks in Atlanta last year, the Hawks had won the prior three games at home in this series.
Atlanta has won six of their last ten including four in a row coming into this game. They'll want to take advantage of a tired Clippers squad before heading off to Boston Wednesday.
Philadelphia 76ers - They have lost five of their last six games and come into Monday's matchup against Dallas as a +1.5 home dog after opening -1. Dallas isn't much better though.
Head to Head Advantages
Kings @ Cavs - The Kings conclude a grueling seven game road trip in Cleveland against a Cavs team that is 9-1 over their last ten games. Sacramento is 5-1 on this road trip thus far. Assuming all things normal here (and not counting the Kings current exhaustive road trip), we should have a line of Cavs -4.5. Sacramento, however, is 8-2 in the last ten games vs. Cleveland. And the Kings have beaten Cleveland Handily in most of those eight wins, only one of which was in Cleveland. Based on the head-to-head history alone we'd be on Sacramento, however, these teams do only meet twice a year so the recent trends are more scary than they might otherwise be.
Mavs @ 76ers - The 76ers have won their last three at home against the Mavericks but are cold right now and without leading scorer Joel Embiid, who is undergoing a knee procedure this week.
Any Back-to-Back Play?
Clippers
Who Are the Top Cappers On?
Hawks
- Don Shapiro, Gambling911.com
