Michael Cannon
Cleveland at LA LAKERS -5'
Another free winner last night makes it 50-34-3 with my last 87 free plays!
Take the Lakers as the home chalk over the Cavaliers.
The Lakers have too many scoring options for the Cavs to contend with. You also will have an ultra-motivated Kobe Bryant wanting to show up old “friend” Shaq and LeBron.
Los Angeles has been idle since Tuesday, while Cleveland is playing its fourth road game in six days. Those will be some tired legs Shaq brings into the Staples Center tonight.
Take the Lakers minus the points as they grab the home win and cover.
2♦ LA LAKERS
Drew Gordon
LA Clippers +9' at PHOENIX
26-15-2 roll L43 Free Plays, incl. the Warriors cover at the Hornets 108-102 Wednesday! For today's complimentary play, we're looking at the Clippers-Suns match up.
In case you haven't noticed the Suns are not exactly playing well, struggling since the injury to Barbosa, going 4-8 SU & 5-7 ATS. True, he returns to action tonight, but let's not get carried away. Its going to take the talented 6th man a little time to shake off the rust, and in the meantime, we'll cash in with the road dog Friday night.
Clippers haven't exactly been good either, but when you look over the stats of each team's L5 games, they're errily similar. The Suns have been scoring more (108 vs 101 ppg), but the Clippers have been defending better (allowing 101 vs 106 ppg). I'm not trying to argue that the Clippers are anywhere near as good as the Suns, but they aren't as bad as Vegas wants you to believe, at least not in this spot.
Finally, do you remember the last time these two teams met? Clippers lost, but covered a razor close 109-107 contest at Staples October 28th! My point is the Clippers are not going to be intimidated by the Suns, especially the way they're playing right now. In the end, with 70-80% of the betting public on the Suns here, I'm happy to go the other way based on each team's recent play.
Take the LA Clippers plus the points over Phoenix in this NBA match up.
2♦ LA CLIPPERS
Scott Delaney
L.A. Clippers at Phoenix
The Suns will snap their mini-skid tonight, as they should be welcoming back Leandro Barbosa. Without him, they're 4-8. When he exited a Nov. 29 game with a sprained left ankle, the Suns were 14-3.
The speedy reserve back in action, the Suns will enjoy a boost to their offense, which has scored 103.4 points without him - almost nine points below their average entering the month.
Coming off that stunning 117-113 loss to Oklahoma City, I suspect the Suns will be fired up for this Christmas night clash against the visiting Clippers. Phoenix couldn't have asked for a better opponent to snap its skid, either.
The Suns have won five straight and eight of nine meetings with the Clippers, who have lost four in a row at Phoenix - including a 140-100 pasting on Feb. 17 the last time they came to the desert.
And since the Clippers have been rather weak on defense most recently, forcing an average of 8.7 turnovers in their last three contests while allowing more than 100 points in each, Phoenix should get back on track tonight.
Lay the chalk with Phoenix.
5♦ SUNS
Craig Davis
Today's free play is on the Boston Celtics. Typical Vegas overreaction to an injured player has jumped this line from 2 to 5 1/2 and 6 in some places... and I simply think that's too many points to give to the Boston Celtics. It was announced yesterday that Paul Pierce was going to miss this game (and the next two weeks) due to injury, and the line immediately jumped up nearly four points. I'm sorry, but I'm not buying it. I think the Celtics win this game SU, with or without Pierce. They have plenty of talent on this roster and would love nothing more than to go on the road and beat a very good Orlando team without one of their best players. Kevin Garnett is probable and will play, and when you combine him with guys like Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen, Pierce's absence won't be nearly as noticeable. Boston also plays better defense on the road, allowing just 90 PPG away from Boston where they have won more games than they have lost. The other guys will be counted on more to step up without Pierce in the lineup, and when teams do that it usually leads to a better offensive effort because everyone has to do their role for the team to succeed instead of relying on one guy. I'm taking the Celtics as my free play of the day.
2♦ BOSTON
King Creole
LAC +10 vs PHO
LA does pretty well in this Pacific Division series. They covered against Phoenix in the first game of the season back on Oct. 28th. The Clips are 6-2 ATS in the last 8 meetings... and that includes 4-1 ATS in this building. LA is also a PERFECT 5-0 ATs in their last 5 games against all foes in their Pacific Division. The same can't be said for Phoenix, who is 1-5 ATS in their last 6 division games.
2-10 ATS this year: All NBA double-digit favorites who have a game the NEXT day (Phoenix).
1-6 ATS this year: All DIVISION home teams playing off BB SU and ATS losses in a row (Phoenix).
9-1-1 ATS this year: All Division dogs playing off BB SUATS road losses in which they were an underdog of +7 or more points (CLIPS).
10-2 ATS last 12 months: All Underdogs of 2 > points playing in their 6th STRAIGHT road game (CLIPS).
1-6 ATS last 4 weeks: All NBA teams off a SU loss in which they scored AND allowed 110 or more points (Phoenix).