Friday, May 25th, 2012
The Miami Heat will travel to face Eastern Conference foe Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in an NBA pro basketball game on Thursday night. Tip off time in Cleveland is scheduled for 8PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by TNT.
The LVSC NBA odds makers have set the opening point spread in this contest and the Cleveland Cavaliers were opened as a 9 ½ point favorite with the over under coming in at 187 ½.
The early money from the NBA betting public has come in on the home team, as the Cleveland Cavaliers are currently a 10-point betting favorite. The total has seen early movement towards the under, as the over under is currently lined at 187 for the bettors to play into.
NBA money line gamblers can make a play on the favored Cleveland Cavaliers at –600 with the road underdog Miami Heat bringing back +450 to win this game without taking the points.
The clubs are making their third meeting of the season with the Cleveland Cavaliers a perfect 2-0 in this series. Both meetings were played in Miami with the Cavaliers winning 92-91 as a 1-point underdog on January 25th and a 111-104 win as a 1 point underdog back on November 12th. Cleveland has owned Miami over the years as the Cavaliers have won 8 of their past 9 meetings.
The Heat enter this game in the back end of a back to back. The Heat has been very poor in this spot as they are 1-5 straight up and against the spread on the back end of a back to back. Miami is not running very well right now, as they are losers of three straight and 5 of 6. They are coming off a 107-102 loss on Wednesday to the Boston Celtics. The team fell despite hitting over 52% from the field but was out rebounded by a margin of 53-38. Dwayne Wade bounced back with a good shooting night on Wednesday hitting on 11 of 16 for 30 points. Wade is being bothered by back spasms and had off shooting nights in his two games prior to the contest with Boston.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are a hot team right now. They have won 9 straight games and have covered the spread in their past 5 games. The Cavs have defeated their past 3 opponents by 16 points or more. They are coming off a 105-89 win against the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday. The club hit on 49% of their shots and limited the good shooting club in Memphis to only 38% shooting from the field. Lebron James in only 37 minutes contributed with 22 points on 7 of 14 shooting from the field in their Tuesday night win. In his two games against Miami this season Lebron James has averaged 33 points per game and has averaged over 17 trips to the free throw line in each game.
Trend: The Under is 4-0 in their past 4 meetings in Cleveland
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