NBA Basketball Betting Free Picks: Denver @ Cleveland
Added on Feb 18, 2010 by Jack Thurman in
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A short slate of NBA basketball betting action at your local sports betting sites for Thursday, but both games are heavyweight matchups. Out West, the Los Angeles Lakers will host the Boston Celtics while back East the Cleveland Cavaliers take on the Denver Nuggets. The Lakers/Celtics game is currently off the board due to the status of Kobe Bryant who has been downgraded to ‘doubtful’ with his ankle injury. As a result, we’ll take a look at the Cavs/Nuggets matchup. Cleveland made a lot of noise in the NBA trade market over the past 24 hours as they landed Antawn Jamison from Washington while Zydrunas Ilgauskas ended up going to the Wizards. Ilgauskas will almost certainly work out a buyout deal with the Wizards which frees up cap space for Washington and allows him to sign elsewhere–including back in Cleveland.
Denver Nuggets at Cleveland Cavaliers
February 18, 5:05 PM Pacific
Right now no word whether or not the Cavs’ new power forward Jamison will be in uniform on Thursday night, and pointguard Mo Williams isn’t quite ready to come back from his shoulder injury either. Aside from that, Cleveland should be well rested as they look to defend the best record in the NBA with the team being off due to the NBA All Star break for a full week. Nuggets are currently second in the Western Conference behind Los Angeles but a bigger concern than the Lakers are the Utah Jazz, who are one game behind Denver in the Northwest Division.
Not surprisingly, Denver has a great home record at 23-5 SU but is only 12-13 SU/10-13 ATS away from ‘The Mile High City’. Cavs are in torrid form SU winning 13 straight and 15 of 16. Almost as impressively, the Cavs have covered 8 of their L11 which considering that they’re the most ‘public’ team in the NBA and never fly under the linesmakers’ radar is the sign of a team playing at its best. Some concern about lack of momentum from the layoff, but the strong veteran personalities on this team (a couple of guys you may have heard of named Shaq and LeBron) are unlikely to let that happen. The Jamison pickup is a perfect fit giving the Cavs a downright frightening frontline–a frontline of LeBron, Shaq and Jamison have to rank among the best in recent memory. For that reason, even if Jamison isn’t in uniform expect a lot of excitement and enthusiasm about his acquisition. While there may be some sadness at the loss of Ilgauskas who has been part of the Cavs family for years my hunch is that he’ll all but certainly be offered the opportunity to rejoin the team after the inevitable buyout from the Wizards.
Overall, the Cavs have a middling pointspread record with one glaring exception: they are 21-4 SU/17-7 ATS against teams with winning records. That suggests a team that brings its best game against its toughest opponents. Expect the Cavs to want to make a strong statement against one of the best teams in the West and get the stretch run of the regular season off to a successful start.
Bet Cleveland -6 over Denver
