NBA Betting – Cleveland Cavaliers at Miami Heat
By Zack Garrison in News
Updated: January 17, 2018 at 9:40 am ESTPublished:
Cleveland Cavaliers (-6, 204.5) at Miami Heat
The first time LeBron James went back to Miami, things didn’t go so well for him and the Cleveland Cavaliers (42-25, 18-16 away). Tonight, a much different Cavs team returns to South Beach for a rematch with the underwhelming Heat (29-36, 14-18 home) at American Airlines Arena (8:00 PM Eastern).
Cleveland lost the much-hyped Christmas Day showdown to Miami, 101-91, back when the team was still struggling to find chemistry. “We’re not that good right now,” James said at the time. “We’ve won some good games, we’ve lost some games, but we’re not that good right now.”
Lately, those doubts are no longer on the table as the team is second in the Eastern Conference and has won six of the last seven, including four in a row against the Suns, Mavericks, Spurs, and Magic. A much more cohesive Cavs team managed to down the Heat 113-93 (in Cleveland) the last time they met on February 11.
Big man Timofey Mozgov scored 20 points for Cleveland while youngster Tristan Thompson added 17.
“He’s not doing things that surprise me,” said Cavs coach David Blatt, who coached Mozgov on the Russian national team.
Cleveland’s recent win streak has launched the team past the laboring Chicago Bulls for top spot in the Central Division. The Cavs have also past Toronto for second overall in the Eastern Conference.
Miami is currently sitting just out of the playoffs with a 29-36 record, half a game behind the Charlotte Hornets in the Eastern Conference. The Heat have alternated wins and losses in their last five games, but lost their last game, 102-92, against the Raptors on Friday.
Miami coach Erik Spoelstra pinned the loss on the team’s turnover issues.
“At least ten of them were unforced,” said Spoelstra of his team’s 21 turnovers on the night. “We weren’t really able to keep that collective mental toughness through those mistakes offensively. That led to some defensive breakdowns, and it went from there.”
The Cavs are six-point favorites at the moment for tonight’s game, and the total is at 204.5 points. The winner has covered the spread in both head-to-head games this season.
(Photo credit: Keith Allison from Baltimore, USA (AAAA0584) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)
Sports Writer
Zack is a tour guide whose favorite sports are football, baseball, and golf. He enjoys giving obnoxious commentary during games and hopes to some day write a book about sports. His favorite underdog victory was the Diamondbacks beating the Yankees in game 7 of the World Series.
