Cleveland Cavaliers at Boston Celtics
Share the wealth
Cleveland (44-14, 29-29 ATS) won its first game in three tries with newest Cavalier Antawn Jamison, pulling out a 105-95 home victory over the New Orleans Hornets Tuesday night.
Jamison made 7-of-14 field goals and had 18 points, six rebounds and two steals for his best outing in his new uniform. Six Cavaliers put up double figures in points, including LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal with 20 apiece. A balanced offensive attack also had five players attempt at least 10 shots and no single player took more than 16 field goal attempts.
While the offence clicked, Cleveland is still unhappy with its defensive play.
“We've played some great defence over the course of the year,” LeBron said after the win. “We know in order to win ball games consistently, we have to be good defensively. We'll get it back.”
“We're definitely not where we want to be right now,” added coach Mike Brown, whose team just ended a three-game losing streak. “We've got to fight through it.”
Trade of their own
The Celtics (36-19, 21-34 ATS) also made a deadline deal, acquiring Nate Robinson from the Knicks in exchange for Eddie House. Robinson made his Boston debut Tuesday night and it just happened to come against the Knicks. Making headlines but few baskets, Robinson scored four points in 16 minutes as his new team prevailed 110-106.
Another thing Boston had in common with Cleveland earlier this week is dismal defence. The Celtics saw New York shoot better than 52 percent from the floor and they were almost helpless against Knicks’ big man David Lee, who recorded 28 points and 15 rebounds.
The defence had better clamp down Thursday because Boston could be without leading scorer Paul Pierce (17.9 ppg) due to a sprained right thumb.
“It's a little banged up right now, so it's something I'm going to think about—taking a few days off and letting it heal,” Pierce said on Monday prior to sitting out Tuesday’s contest.
Prior engagement
The Cavs and Celtics have met just once this season and it was the very first game of the year for both teams. Boston went into Cleveland on October 27 as a 4.5-point underdog and came away with a 95-89 victory. The Cavs, who were playing without Delonte West, got 38 points from James but allowed the Celtics to shoot 47.4 percent from 3-point range (9-for-19).
Denver Nuggets at Golden State Warriors
Rockiness in the Rockies
Dating back to February 1, the Nuggets (37-19, 28-28 ATS) have been alternating wins and losses. As a result, they are 5-4 (4-5 ATS) this month, having opened with an overtime win against Sacramento and most recently handling Boston 114-105 Sunday.
“We're still kind of inconsistent at times,” said Kenyon Martin, stating the obvious. “If we can kind of lock in and do the stuff that we do well and positive in the games that we win, and just learn from the mistakes that we make, that will go a long way for us.”
Case in point: the Nuggets are 6-0 this season against the Lakers, Cavs, Celtics and Magic.
“If we come out focused like we did (against Boston), like we did against the Lakers, like we did against Cleveland, we're a tough team to play with,” noted Carmelo Anthony.
Now the issue is getting the job done against a disappointing squad like Golden State (16-40, 31-25 ATS).
Just like pops
The Warriors have also been alternating wins and losses over the past two weeks, starting with a loss to Dallas on February 8 and 30-point win over the Clippers two days later. Golden State is 3-4 in that span (4-3 ATS), coming off 110-102 home loss to Philadelphia on Tuesday night.
While winning three of seven is nothing special, it’s a lot better than the nine-game losing streak Golden State endured in late January and early February. Part of the reason for the minor improvement is increased time for rookie Stephen Curry (15.3 ppg, 5.1 apg) at point guard. In their first 50 games, the Warriors scored at least 35 fastbreak points on four occasions. They have reached that mark in three of their last five outings with Curry seeing more time at the point, including two of those games with Monta Ellis on the sidelines.
In the meantime, Curry, the son of former NBA sharpshooter Dell Curry, has maintained his scoring prowess. He has tallied double figures in eight straight games, has scored more than 30 points in two of his past six outings and led a furious comeback against the Hawks by going 13-of-18 from the floor in a 108-104 victory Sunday.
Prior engagements
The Nuggets and Warriors have already played three times this season and all three games were shootouts. Denver won the first two contests at home (135-107 December 1 and 123-122 on January 5) then visited Golden State on January 20 and pulled out a 123-118 overtime thriller. The Warriors covered the spread in each of the past two outings.
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The Nuggets are 3-14 ATS in their last 17 games against teams with losing SU records. The Warriors are 14-6 ATS in their last 20 against the Western Conference.
Both Denver (27-29 O/U) and Golden State (26-30 O/U) have leaned slightly toward the under, which is 4-1 in the Warriors’ last five overall. The over, however, is 5-2 in the Nuggets’ last seven overall.
The over is 4-0 in the last four meetings between the two teams and the home team is 5-1 ATS in the last six head-to-head encounters.