2010 NBA Playoffs Betting: Home Teams Seek 2-0 Edge
2010 NBA Playoffs betting as always is available at Sportsbook.com. This is Carrie Stroup reporting.
Cleveland and Denver opened impressively on their own home courts in winning and covering Game 1 of the new playoff season. Each club will look to take a decided edge on Monday night, before packing for the road for the next two contests. This doubleheader is on TNT starting at 8 Eastern Monday. The Cavaliers are a 10.5-point favorite over Chicago and the Nuggets are laying 7-points to the injury-riddled Jazz at Sportsbook.com.
Play like a champion
The Cavaliers closed as 12-point point home favorites against Chicago and almost frittered away a 22-point lead before closing the deal. The Bulls got within seven points in the fourth quarter, before being visibility spent and falling 99-83.
Cleveland appeared bored after building a humongous lead, yet is quite confident in their abilities, this year more than ever.
"We," LeBron James said, "have the look of a champion."
He might be right and the oddsmakers certainly think so making them the betting choice for futures wager to be NBA champions. The Cavs remade roster is back at full strength with Shaquille O'Neal, Antawn Jamison and Anthony Parker. Cleveland looked bigger, stronger and had more options coming off the bench than Chicago and is 14-3 ATS off a home win by 10 points or more this season.
The Bulls can take heart they outscored the Cavaliers by a point after the first 12 minutes and realistically had no reason to believe they could sweep Cleveland at Quicken Loans Arena.
"We can't wait to play," Derrick Rose said after scoring 28 points and handing out 10 assists. "I know I can't. This is something I live for. I think about it every minute of the day, playing against the best team in the NBA."
The loss ended Chicago's brief three game winning streak, however they are 13-5 ATS after playing two consecutive road games this season.
Sportsbook.com took into consideration the Bulls will have turnaround revenge and opened them as Game 2 underdogs of 10.5-points, with total of 191 and they are 7-1 ATS off a loss since Mar. 12. Chicago is 18-8 UNDER revenging same season loss this year.
Cleveland knows how to turn up the defensive intensity and is 13-5 ATS after two or more Under's this season and continues to rule the first round with 13-3 ATS mark. The Cavs are 10-2 SU and ATS at home vs. Da Bulls in this battle of Great Lakes cities and is 9-1 UNDER after a cover as a double digit favorite this season.
Carmelo chewy good for the Nuggets
Denver has been floundering for some time, but once the playoff lights came on it was show time for their two brightest stars. Carmelo Anthony scored a playoff-high 42 points in leading the Nuggets to 126-113 victory.
Nuggets' J.R. Smith broke open a 90-90 tie game with four 3-point baskets, scoring 18 of his 20 points in the final stanza. "It felt good to get on, period," Smith said. "I couldn't hit anything. I didn't have a rhythm. It felt good to start making shots."
Denver scored 38 points in the last quarter and Anthony and Smith combined for 30 of them. That raised the Nuggets record in 14-3 ATS in playoff games since last season.
Utah has to feel the basketball gods are conspiring against them. Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko re-injured his strained left calf in practice Thursday and won't play in the series, which is catastrophic, since he was the one player on Utah roster that could at least contain Anthony.
Jazz center Mehmet Okur aggravated his left Achilles' tendon injury in the first half, slipping on a wet spot on the floor and undergoes MRI. "I felt something pop," said Okur. Utah is 3-12 ATS as visitor revenging a road loss the last two years.
Offense ruled in the series opener, with Denver shooting 57.1 percent and Utah at 54.7 percent, however too many players had wide open looks, which was both a function of exceptional ball movement and shoddy defense.
Utah is a seven-point underdog at Sportsbook.com, with its roster shrinking and will have to continue to shoot the ball well and play defense with greater urgency. At the very least the Jazz are capable of covering the number and are 13-1 ATS after a road game where both teams score 100 or more points.
Denver has shown a killer-instinct when leading in a series and is 8-0 ATS when doing so. The Nuggets are now is 22-8 UNDER in the first round of the playoffs and are 44-7 SU when they have 20 or more assists this campaign.
Carrie Stroup, Gambling911.com Senior Reporter
