SPORTS WAGERS
Cleveland +1.20 over ORLANDO
Antawn Jamison’s 0-12 performance in his Cav’s debut means absolutely jack. Jamison gives this already great shooting team another outstanding option and a lot more problems for the opposition. The Cav’s have already beaten the Magic twice this year and while the Magic dominated them in last year’s playoffs, this season the Cav’s are improved while the Magic did not. To compensate for the loss of Turkoglu, the Magic picked up Vince Carter and he’s one of the most selfish and overrated players this game has ever seen. Carter is a huge defensive liability and is great at making shots when they mean nothing. With the game close or on the line you can count on him to throw up a near impossible shot and miss it most of the time. When Orlando is not hitting the three’s they virtually have no shot of winning against the NBA elite squads. What you can expect from the Cav’s here is a completely different performance than the one they had against Charlotte on Friday. Jamison and LeBron along with a slew of other great shooters make this team so much better than the Magic in every way and for the third time this year they’ll very likely remind the Magic again of who is king of the East. Play: Cleveland +1.20 (Risking 2 units).
DETROIT +5/+1.71 over San Antonio
The Spurs continue to get way too much credit and they continue to be overvalued almost every game. They have a decent record at 31-22 but a close look reveals that most of those wins came against teams they should beat and they seldom beat teams that are ahead of them in the standings. They’ve been a bit better of late but in now way can this team be trusted laying this many points on the road. They struggle to score, they’re made up of a bunch of aging vets and they’ll play its eighth consecutive game on the road here before heading home to play Ok City on Wednesday. The Pistons, too, are loaded with some aging vets and they are having an awful year. However, they’re finally healthy and will have everyone back in the line-up for this one and with guys like Hamilton, Prince, Wallace and Stuckey, they have enough scorers and enough great defensive players to keep this one very close and even pull off the upset. The situation favors the Pistons, Tony Parker is playing on a bad hip, knee and ankle and Tim Duncan has 18 points in his past two games. Play: Detroit +5 (Risking 1.05 units) Play: Detroit +1.71 (Risking 1 unit).
St. Bonaventure +4½ over LASALLE
Laying points with bad teams is bad strategy indeed and the LaSalle Explorers certainly qualify. This is a team that has lost five straight and six of its last seven with only win over that stretch coming against 2-23 Fordham. Incidentally, Fordham is 0-13 in the conference. The Explorers virtually have no bench and if one of its top three go cold, which they always do, this squad has very little chance at succeeding. The Bonnies aren’t in much better shape, as they and the Explorers have virtually identical records, which stand at 3-8 in the conference and 10-14 overall. The difference, however, is that the Explorers are getting points, not laying them and they’ve also had some real close losses to some very good teams. In fact, the Bonnies went into Syracuse and lost by just 13. At Charlotte, they lost by just three and at St. Joes they lost by just seven. Early in the year the Bonnies beat the Johnnies and that’s a pretty good win, which is unlike anything the Explorers have accomplished. The Bonnies are perceived as a bad team and that may be true but they’re not the second best team in this match-up and taking points with them against a team that comes highly recommended. Play: St. Bonaventure +4½ (Risking 2.1 units to win 2).
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