NBA Betting – Cleveland Cavaliers at San Antonio Spurs
By Zack Garrison in News
Updated: January 17, 2018 at 9:40 am ESTPublished:
Cleveland Cavaliers at San Antonio Spurs (-1, 208.5 o/u)
Don’t look now, but the defending NBA champs appear to be back on track; the San Antonio Spurs (40-23, 24-7 home) have won six games in a row and will look to send a message to the rest of the league tonight when they host the current 2015 NBA Title favorites, the Cleveland Cavaliers (41-25, 17-16 away), at the AT&T Center (9:30 p.m. Eastern).
On Tuesday, the Spurs downed the Atlantic-leading Raptors 117-107; Kawhi Leonard led San Antonio with 24 points and 11 boards while matching a career-high with five steals.
The Spurs got a scare late in the game when forward Tim Duncan hyperextended his left elbow; but the injury doesn’t appear to be serious.
“They told us right away [Duncan’s injury] was not big, so [there was] maybe half a second [of anxiety],” said point guard Tony Parker after the game.
The Cavaliers also come into tonight’s game on something of a roll, winning eight of their last 11 (including two straight) and taking over top spot in the Central Division from the Chicago Bulls. Their 127-94 road win over Dallas on Tuesday was arguably their most complete game of the season.
“The best thing about tonight is we played a complete 48 minutes,” said four-time NBA MVP LeBron James. “I just liked the way we approached the game. We shared the ball, and everyone fell into a rhythm.”
James, who played the entire game sans headband, had 27 points and eight assists in just over 28 minutes of action. Kevin Love was a monster on the boards for the Cavs, who outrebounded Dallas 50-42; Love grabbed 14 rebounds all by himself, while chipping in with 21 points on 9/17 shooting.
Despite Cleveland’s impressive road performances of late, the Spurs are one-point favorites for tonight’s game at the moment.
Trends: the Spurs have owned the Cavaliers of late, winning the last ten in a row. Of course, the majority of those didn’t feature Cleveland’s new big three. The teams have only met once this year with the Spurs squeaking out a 92-90 in Cleveland in early November (back when the Cavs were still hunting for chemistry.)Â More concerning for Cleveland fans is that the Spurs have also covered the spread in eight of the last ten.
(Photo credit: Mike (Flickr: Spurs-Magic078) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo may appear 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.
