Tag: Cleveland Cavaliers

Are Golden State and Cleveland Headed for third Championship Battle?

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The Golden State Warriors just beat Houston to extend their winning run to 10 games and they are now all but guaranteed the top seed berth in the Western Conference. A couple of weeks ago the Warriors were in real danger following Kevin Durrant’s injury sparked a bad slump in form. They have bounced back in style and are now 4/5 favourites with Betway to win the NBA Championship.

There are just six or seven games to go before the end of the regular season now, and the playoff picture is becoming a lot clearer, with several teams having already punched their postseason tickets. Yet a few teams’ chances of making the playoffs are teetering on a knife edge, so there are lots of big games still to bet on.

Futures Update

There are no longer any lines on the division winners as they have been pretty much sewn up by Golden State, San Antonio, Utah, Cleveland, Boston and Washington. Futures betting now hinges on who will win each conference and the Championship. In the west, Golden State has hit form at just the right time. When Durrant returns they will be even stronger and look destined for a third consecutive Finals appearance, despite the threat of San Antonio and Houston. Paddy Power has 4/9 on Golden State. Whether it will meet Cleveland for a third year running is another matter entirely.

The Cavs have led the way in the east for most of the season, but have ceded the lead to the Celtics in the past week. If Boston can hold on and claim the top seed spot, they can really be a threat in the playoffs and look a good option in the east at 6/1 with William Hill and Ladbrokes, while Washington is an interesting outsider at 10/1 with Bet Victor.

There is also the small matter of who will be named regular season MVP. James Harden is leading the way but it is still very close between him and Russell Westbrook, who have been the best two offensive players in the league by some distance this season. One thing worth noting is that while most bookmakers will only go to 1/2 on Harden, William Hill is offering 4/5, so that is a generous set of odds as he is expected to just about pip Westbrook to the honour, as his Rockets have been better than Westbrook’s Thunder this season and he has been breaking all sorts of records.

Upcoming Games

In the east three teams – the Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers – have an identical record but only two can go to the playoffs. Their games should prove interesting in the week ahead. Chicago is on a three-game winning streak and should beat the Knicks ( who are 3-7 in their last 10) on Wednesday and cover a reasonable spread, but the Pacers are likely to lose to the Raptors. On Thursday, Miami faces a tough game against the Hornets and Charlotte looks a good bet.

Boston Celtics look set to challenge Cleveland in Eastern Conference

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A week ago we recommended you back the Washington Wizards at 13/8 with Bet Victor to win the Southeast Division and the Boston Celtics at 6/5 with Coral to win the Atlantic Division. We hope you followed that advice because in the past week both teams have won all their games and surged clear at the top of those divisions. They are both now odds-on to win them: the Wizards have gone in from 13/8 to 10/11, with Sky Bet, William Hill and Betway offering the best odds; while the Celtics have gone from 6/5 to being heavy favourites, with Betway offering the best price at 3/4. In the past week the Celtics’ closest rivals, the Toronto Raptors, have lost twice, while the Hawks and the Hornets, who are vying with Washington in the Southeast Division, have also stumbled. The Celtics and Wizards have great momentum, and if you did not back them a week ago, 10/11 and 3/4 still makes a nice double. Or you could try a six-fold: Utah Jazz, Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs, Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers and Washington Wizards all to win their divisions.

Eastern Conference

In the Western Conference, the Golden State Warriors are on fire and should make another Finals, despite the superb form of the San Antonio Spurs. But things are much more interesting in the Eastern Conference. The Cavaliers, last season’s NBA Championship winners led by LeBron James, have been heavy favourites to win it all season, but the Cavs have struggled to build momentum this season. They cannot seem to post a long run of consecutive wins and have lost five of their last 10. No such problems for the Celtics, who are on a seven-game winning streak, or the Wizards, who have also won seven in a row. Both could really give the Cavs a run for their money in the Eastern Conference. Of the two, the Celtics are the most likely. Boston guard Isaiah Thomas has scored 20 or more points in 34 consecutive games and that has been the driving force behind their superb run since Christmas. The Wizards, meanwhile, have won 16 consecutive home games and are 23-9 since December 1. It’s currently advantage Cleveland in the playoff race, as the defending champs are 34-15, but the Celtics are hot on the tail, with 33-18, while the Wizards are back on 30-20. Cleveland is in the driving seat, but either could steal the top seed from them. The best price you can get on Cleveland winning the conference is a lowly 4/11, but the 12/1 on offer at 888 Sport on the Celtics looks appealing, as does the longer shot of 33/1 available at Paddy Power on the Wizards.

Upcoming Games

The Celtics travel to Sacramento on Thursday to face the Kings, who are low on confidence after recently blowing double-digit leads to lose three times in a row and are 20-31. The Celtics are a juggernaut right now and should win that one comfortably. On the same day, the in-form Wizards travel to Brooklyn to play the Nets, who are pretty much the worst team in the league right now. The Nets have lost nine in a row and 12 in a row at home, so the Wizards should crush them. A double of the Celtics and Wizards to cover the spread looks good here. To broaden it out to a treble, the Spurs play the 76ers in Philadelphia and should be confident of a resounding win. After the Warriors, the Spurs have the best record in the league this season and the 76ers are on a three-game losing streak and looking short of ideas.

NBA Playoffs Futures Betting: A Final Look at the Eastern Conference NBA Championship Race

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With ten days to go in the NBA regular season, we present a final analysis of contenders and pretenders heading into the NBA Playoffs. Today, we look at the Eastern Conference. Who will you bank on to win?

March 26, 2015

 

This has been an NBA regular season for the ages, and we’ve hardly had a moment to catch our breath. With ten days remaining in the regular season, the NBA Championship race remains highly unpredictable in a way that we haven’t seen in decades of professional basketball.

Today, in our final look at NBA Futures betting for the NBA Championship, we take a look at this year’s Eastern Conference contenders as we gear up for a historically competitive NBA playoffs.

 

The Atlanta Hawks:

The Atlanta Hawks are the undisputed Cinderella of the 2015 NBA regular season. They will finish the regular season with the Eastern Conference top record, setting a franchise record for wins along the way. The Hawks have been around since 1949 when they debuted as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, and this year’s squad has won more games than any since. They are arguably the finest squad in Hawks history.

They play an efficient, unselfish, team-first brand of basketball modelled on ball movement and the San Antonio Spurs’ championship formula. They can defend, they can score, they can shoot and they play for each other. The Atlanta Hawks are really good.

However, the discussion here concerns whether they are good enough to win the NBA Championship. Basketball purists LOVE these Hawks for good reason. In an era where the individual NBA superstar is celebrated to a ludicrous degree, Atlanta is winning with the opposite formula. They have no superstar players. Their strength comes from the collective being stronger than the sum of its individual parts. They play pure, team basketball without relying on a single star.

That’s why this Atlanta team is the darling of the NBA season. But, that is also why the Atlanta Hawks are not going to win the NBA Championship this season.

If NBA history has taught us one thing, it’s that teams without an established superstar do not win NBA titles. Going back 30 years, only the 2004 Detroit Pistons won the NBA Championship without a superstar player. Previous to that, you’d have to go back to the 1979 Seattle Supersonics to find the next team that won without an elite superstar.

That is a whole lot of history the Atlanta Hawks are up against.

The NBA Playoffs are a different animal to the regular season. Defenses tighten up and in a seven-game series, teams play each other 4-7 times in ten days. This means that teams have ample opportunity to make adjustments from game to game.

That’s where the superstar closer comes in to earn the big bucks. During playoff games, all offenses have difficult stretches when everything grinds to halt. That’s when having a great individual player to create scoring from nothing is beyond crucial to success. Atlanta has exactly zero star players who can carry the scoring load. In the NBA Playoffs, that is an alarming situation to be in.

Odds Picture: The Hawks have hovered at 7-1 odds (fourth favourites) for some time now, and that is not going to change. It is not exactly enticing because while Atlanta is very good, they should in reality be closer to 12-1 odds. But because they play in the woeful East, their odds take a beating.

Final Verdict: We love Atlanta and hope that they can shock the world. But history tells us that they’re one great player short. If you’re going to take a punt on a dark horse, we suggest picking one from the deep, deep West, where the odds are juicy all over… (stay tuned to this space for the Western Conference Playoff Preview next week)

 

The Cleveland Cavaliers:

They are hitting top gear, they have the best player in the league by far, they are easily the most dangerous team in the NBA right now and they are the outright favourite to win the NBA Championship. Whether they can beat whoever comes out of the West is another question, but Cleveland’s path to reach the Finals is a lock. Just book it now, the Cavs are making the Finals.

Of the contending teams, Cleveland is the one squad that hasn’t even seen its best side yet. And that is scary, because they have been the best team in the league since the February All-Star break.

It hasn’t been easy, and many questions about chemistry remain. Their new superstar forward, Kevin Love, has had well documented troubles fitting in with LeBron James on and off the court. Their rookie head coach, David Blatt, has battled scrutiny and doubt all season not just from the media, but from his own team. It’s an open secret that LeBron James coaches that team and frequently ignores his coach’s play calls from the sideline.

And yet, none of this has stopped Cleveland from becoming a true scoring juggernaut and the most dangerous team in the NBA heading into the playoffs.

Such is the luxury of having the world’s best player, LeBron James, on your squad. If they ever figure out how to use Kevin Love as he was intended to be used, there will be no stopping Cleveland. There may be no stopping them regardless.

Odds Picture: Cleveland is the bookies favourite to win it all at 2.5/1 odds. It’s actually a good bet, because their easy path to the Finals in the woeful East will be a massive advantage over their Finals opponents. Whoever comes through from the West will have endured a bloodbath to get to the same point as Cleveland.

Final Verdict: Mark it down and set it in stone: Cleveland will be in the Finals. Whether they beat the West’s finest is the real question. But whoever they play, Cleveland will give them all they can handle.

 

The Chicago Bulls:

I hate writing about the Chicago Bulls because you cannot discuss this team for more than ten seconds before somebody brings up Derrick Rose’s constantly broken knees. And who can blame them for doing so? Derrick Rose’s knees are always broken.

The only good thing that comes with his latest injury? At least we know not to waste our money betting on a Bulls championship. It’s not going to happen.

From April 2012 till now, Rose has torn his knees up three times in major injuries. Every positive move has been met with a setback twice as potent. At the end of February this year, he re-tore a meniscus in his knee and underwent surgery again. We have ten games to go until playoff time and instead of finalizing their playoff push, we are still reading about how the former MVP swears he’ll be ready for the postseason.

The only problem is, nobody can believe him anymore. How could we at this point? How is it possible to trust Derrick Rose’s knees when three years of evidence points to a player that may well end up as one of the NBA’s all-time cautionary tales?

Sadly, Derrick Rose is no longer in charge of his body. That means that no matter how well-intentioned he is in what he says or does, the truth is that his body has betrayed him for good.

2012 Derrick Rose is never coming back, and that is very, very sad.

The Bulls are used to playing without Rose, and they have the NBA’s most relentlessly demanding coach. They know how to play at a high level without Rose, but this drive has taken its toll. Key players such as Joakim Noah and Jimmy Butler are all carrying chronic injuries into the playoffs. And with such a cloud of uncertainty hanging over the team, the Bulls are looking at a familiar scene: a spirited underdog performance in the playoffs that is ultimately not enough to win it all.

Odds Picture: The Bulls chances are dropping, and rightfully so. Currently, they stand anywhere from 12-1 odds up to 18-1 odds depending on the sportsbook. Even such a fat potential payout is not enough to entice a punt. Save your money for a real dark horse from the West.

Final Verdict: In short, the Chicago Bulls are done without a healthy Derrick Rose. They only had a puncher’s chance to win even with him in uniform. But trying to rush him back for the playoffs on a set of knees that break twice a year? The Chicago Bulls are not winning anything this year.

 

(Stay tuned for the Western Conference Playoff Preview next week!)

 

NBA Futures Betting: Which of the Two Consensus Favourites Will Win the NBA Title?

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NBA futures betting for the Championship has never been more open. Today, we break down the chances of the consensus favourites from each conference: the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

 

February 27, 2015

 

Both the pundits and the media at large have settled on the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers as consensus favourites to meet in the Finals. It’s the type of matchup that makes people forget their families for a week.

In the Western Conference, the Golden State Warriors started the season as a dangerous young team with a bright rookie head coach in Steve Kerr. We expected them to build on their 51 wins last season, and perhaps advance another round in the playoffs.

Nobody expected them to erupt with a 23-3 record, matching an all-time mark set by the 1996 Chicago Bulls (in fairness, those Bulls extended that streak to a ludicrous 41-3). The Warriors have also been a top 5 defensive team consistently. In a Conference with an unprecedented eight contenders, Golden State has played most like the top dog. Their consistency, incredible outside shooting and their balanced, unselfish play means no team has yet to challenge that status.

In the Eastern Conference, the star studded Cleveland Cavaliers are Jekyll and Hyde. The consensus preseason favourites, the Cavaliers were disappointing at first with a terrible 5-7 record. Then, they won eight in a row and all was well. Next, they lost nine of ten games and the world was ending.

Now, they’ve won 18 of their past 20 games including a massive win in Golden State last night. LeBron James remains the league’s undisputed best player. He’s in his prime and flanked by two bona fide All-Stars in Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, who are finally figuring out how to play with James. They’ve made trades that addressed their primary weaknesses (lack of post defense and rim protection) and are now primed for a championship run.

Without question, the Cleveland Cavaliers are the most dangerous team in the NBA.

However, while both Cleveland and Golden State have been the best of their respective conferences, they are not a lock to meet in the Finals. The field of contenders is so abnormally deep this year that one could see either the Cavs or Warriors losing in a seven game series.

Welcome to the 2014-2015 NBA season, where everything is up in the air. Let’s break down the case for Golden State’s and Cleveland’s championship hopes.

 

Golden State’s Case:

Stephen Curry is like a walking, talking video game. His game is completely unique in NBA history. A guy who takes shots with such a high degree of difficulty simply should not be this efficient at making them. He makes over 40% of his three point attempts, shoots 49% from the field and is the deadliest shooter at the point guard position in a league that’s overflowing with them.

Next to him, we find young shooting guard Klay Thompson who has just exploded in a rainbow of ridiculous outside shooting. Remember Curry’s shooting stats? Here’s Thompson’s: 44% from three point range, 47% from the field overall, and almost every shot is outside of 18 feet.

He broke Twitter and the basketball media last month with 37 points in a single quarter against Sacramento. In a QUARTER! Twelve minutes of an NBA game and he hit 13 straight shots and NINE of them were threes! Needless to say, it’s an NBA record.

A year ago, the Warriors head coach at the time claimed “The Splash Brothers” were the greatest shooting backcourt in NBA history. We scoffed at him then. After all, don’t these two have a lot more to prove first?

Now, it doesn’t look like misguided hyperbole from a protective coach. Steph Curry and Klay Thompson are absolutely on their way to becoming the finest pure shooting backcourt in NBA history. They’re not there yet, but their list of competitors grows thin.

Combined with a truly team-first dynamic, an excellent cast of versatile role players, a highly promising young coach with five Championship rings as a player, and the best home crowd in the NBA, the Golden State Warriors are the real deal.

However: they live and die with Andrew Bogut’s injuries. Their only real rim protector, the Aussie center is disproportionally important to Golden State’s title hopes. But the problem is Bogut is highly injury-prone. If he’s out come playoff time, it represents a significant problem for the Warriors. Power forward David Lee is a gifted low post scorer and rebounder, but he is one of the most atrocious defenders in the entire NBA.

There is no depth in the Warriors frontcourt if Bogut is unavailable. Let’s not forget: the Western Conference path to the Finals is like a gauntlet of pain. Marc Gasol, Dwight Howard, LaMarcus Aldridge and some guy named Tim Duncan are just a few centers that Golden State can count on meeting come playoff time.

If Bogut isn’t 100%, that’s big trouble in a Conference that is overflowing with the NBA’s finest big men.

 

Cleveland’s Case:

LeBron James. Isn’t that enough? In a league dominated by superstars, LeBron is the undisputed best player. Let’s put it this way: last year’s Miami Heat team, with LeBron James, finished with a 54-28 regular season record.

LeBron jumped ship over the summer and returned to Cleveland. This season, Miami are sitting on a terrible 25-31 record with basically the exact same team minus LeBron. They’re barely in the playoffs in a historically bad Conference. With James, the Miami Heat played in four straight NBA Finals.

The best players matter more in the NBA than any other sport. It’s just that simple, and in LeBron James Cleveland has the unanimous best player.

They have depth and scoring chops in spades with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. They addressed their big man void with shrewd signings in Timofey Mozgov and Kendrick Perkins. They have perimeter defending and shooting sorted. And their early season growing pains with an unhappy Kevin Love seem to be in the past.

However, let’s address the 800-pound elephant in the room: inexperience.

Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love are incredibly talented All-Stars. But together, they have played in exactly ZERO NBA playoff games in a combined ten NBA seasons. For a pair of stars as celebrated as these two, that is utterly unacceptable.

They may have the game, but do they have the brains? Are they mentally ready for a level of basketball that they have never experienced before?

But at least they’ve got NBA experience. The same cannot be said for their head coach. A daisy fresh rookie, David Blatt has never coached or even played in a single NBA game.

There have been numerous reports this season of LeBron defying his play calls and basically coaching the team himself out on the floor. James says he respects Blatt, but it is hard to believe that one of the NBA’s ten greatest ever players, a two-time champion and four-time MVP, would take an NBA rookie head coach seriously all the time.

Players look to LeBron for guidance. If he doesn’t buy in to coach’s game plan then they won’t either. The truth is that in one of the weakest Eastern Conferences in recent memory, Cleveland are still only third in the standings and a full ten games behind the Atlanta Hawks.

Much of that is down to the fact that Cleveland has been a work in progress throughout the season. A lot of their bickering comes from egos and not being on the same page while negotiating the growing pains suffered by any newly formed team.

Which brings us to this point: teams simply do not form and win a championship in their first year playing together. The 2008 Boston Celtics are an exception that proves the rule, but they never had to deal with coaching inexperience or team identity. They knew who they were on day one and were utterly unified. Cleveland took nearly 60 games to figure it out.

That being said, nobody in the East can stop Cleveland. It’s not even going to be close. Even Atlanta is going to struggle mightily against such a scoring juggernaut in Cleveland. The Cavs are a lock to make the Finals.

That’s where their championship hopes will be severely tested, because all eight playoff teams from the West have a better chance to beat Cleveland than the entire East combined.

Will raw talent, fiery scoring and the game’s best player be enough for the Cavaliers to win their first ever NBA Championship?

My brain says no. The West is too deep, and Cleveland just isn’t as unified as I would like to see in a truly elite contender.

But this is the NBA, where the game’s best player commands an abnormal amount of influence.

My heart says Cleveland absolutely can win the NBA title this season.

Both Golden State and Cleveland’s odds for winning the title is around 4-1, representing the joint-favourites. Should they meet in the Finals, that matchup would be incredibly difficult to call. But when push comes to shove, only one player from either team has won NBA titles: LeBron James.

I don’t feel good about it, but I might have to pick Cleveland to win this season’s NBA Championship.

 

 

 

A Battle for Identity: The Cleveland Cavaliers @ The New York Knicks

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A Battle for Identity: The Cleveland Cavaliers @ The New York Knicks (Thursday, December 4, 8pm EST)

By James Ng

You would hope by the age of 30 that you’d know who you are and what you do. This is especially true in professional sports, where 30 heralds the downward swing of a player’s prime years. No spring chickens are they then, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, to be searching for an identity in their twelfth season in the NBA at the age of 29 and 30, respectively.

We have the undisputed best player alive in James, going home to Ohio this summer to build a new team after winning two titles in four years with the Miami Heat. Anthony, on the other hand, is in year one of the Phil Jackson revamp of the New York Knicks, complete with a rookie head coach in Derek Fisher and the attempted resurrection of the legendary Triangle Offense.

Who are the New York Knicks and what is a Triangle Offense?

Phil Jackson and the Triangle Offense have claimed 11 NBA Championships (six titles with Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls; five titles in the 00’s with Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant). The Triangle is Jackson’s personal weapon of choice in his storied career. It has been proven time and again, but the system is notoriously difficult to master for lesser basketball minds. It is based entirely on structured yet improvised movement resulting in equal opportunities for all on offense.

In short, you couldn’t have picked a worse offense for Carmelo Anthony’s New York Knicks. He is one of the 10 most talented players today but regrettably (for the Triangle’s purposes), he is also a relentless volume shooter, ball hog and NBA black hole. The ball simply does not move enough in a Carmelo-led offense, and his current teammates (Jose Calderon aside) might struggle to spell “Triangle Offense”, never mind trying to run it.

It’s resulted in a 4-14 start to the season with little relief in sight. Things seem to get worse by the year for Carmelo Anthony, and he doesn’t have time for yet another throwaway season. 

Cleveland’s Identity:

Even for the struggling Cleveland Cavaliers, their early issues seem cute in comparison. Sitting on an 8-7 record through the first month of the season, it hasn’t been easy to blend LeBron’s historic talents with a pair of supremely talented All-Stars in Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. It’s been tough, but not New York Knicks TOUGH.

Some wise fools (raises hand) before the season proclaimed this Cavs team could challenge 70 wins, but a quick look into LeBron’s first year with the Miami Heat in 2011 should have put that idiotic notion to bed early. It is easy to forget that Heat team went 6-8 to start the season after James arrived to join fellow superstars Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. We laughed heartily as Miami flamed out in the Finals when they were soundly beaten by the underdog Dallas Mavericks. 

But let us not forget: after a mediocre start, greatness still responded. The Heat still nearly cracked 60 wins that season and finished as the Eastern Conference #2 seed with a 58-24 record. 

Piece by piece, the Cavs will find their niche and become a dominant team. Yes, they’ve lost to terrible/unheralded teams such as the Knicks and the Utah Jazz. Yes, LeBron James recently called his team “fragile” after a string of four straight defeats. Yes, they have a rookie NBA head coach. But this Cavs team has too much talent, too much depth and too much LeBron to stay bad for long. They’ve averaged 109 points and only given up 86 in their last three games (all wins). They’ve begun to figure it out. Their identity is in the mail.

The Knicks look like a team that will never figure out its identity, and that’s probably because it’s been saddled with the wrong one. It’s not all Carmelo’s fault either. He may shoot the ball like it’s about to expire, but he is also an immensely gifted and versatile basketball player. The main problem is the Knicks have entrusted one of the NBA’s most complex motion offenses to a team that is distinctly underwhelming in its basketball IQ with an unapologetic volume shooter as the centerpiece.

How will it play out when they face each other again this week?

This sets up Thursday’s matchup between the two teams at Madison Square Garden quite nicely. They’ve already played each other on opening night, and Carmelo ruined James’s homecoming by draining an 18-foot jump shot to snatch victory late on. 

This rematch has a dominant Cleveland win written all over it and sometimes, life really is that easy. Cleveland are on an upswing. The New York Knicks though are still stuck in neutral with a pair of burst tires. A monumental scoring performance from Anthony might be enough to steal a win, but that way of thinking has hardly been a model for success since he arrived in New York (win/loss records the last four Knicks seasons: 42-40, 36-30, 54-28, 37-49).

What’s bad news for the Knicks is that the Cavs can flat out score. The Knicks are an average-to-terrible defensive team, currently 16th in the NBA in opponents PPG. But their defense, underwhelming as it is, is not their main problem. Their woeful offense – fourth from last in NBA points per game this season – is the bigger issue and it basically means they can’t score and can barely defend. Such is the price of learning the Triangle with pieces that don’t fit. Such is what we consider when we look at the spread.

To heap on further misery: Carmelo Anthony is struggling with back spasms, having just missed two games before returning to lose at home against the Heat on December 1. Looking for help in this roster is an exercise in futility while Anthony is struggling for fitness, so we can expect a low scoring game from them especially if Anthony struggles early on.

The truth is the Knicks stink. They have lost four straight games after falling to Miami, and have lost six of the seven games, 13 of their last 15. They are terrible and they know it. The Cavs know it too, but complacency will not be an issue as they are hardly the finished article at this point. In a game where neither team is where it should be, we look to talent to win the game. And there is no comparison in talent between these two teams. 

Let us also not forget that Madison Square Garden is a historical soapbox for NBA superstars, and the great ones just LOVE to lay down a gigantic game at MSG in the Big Apple. It’s practically tradition by now, so we’re looking out for a huge game from one of the Cavs’ “Big Three”. That is probably more than enough to defeat the sorry New York Knickerbockers at home and cover the spread twice over.

-7.5 Cavs 10/11 Coral