Eastern Conference Powers Summit

For bettors and handicappers that are having a good year in the NBA, last night’s Cleveland at Washington matchup might have been the easiest layup of the entire season. Cleveland was on a 13-game winning streak, yet had only covered the spread five times. The Wizards have been among the worst teams in the NBA all season and the Cavaliers had this little tussle with, what’s the name again, oh yea Orlando, who is tied with Boston for the second fewest losses in the Eastern Conference at 19.

While it would have almost impossible to predict Washington would win outright on their home floor 109-101 as 9.5-point underdogs, a vast number of people took the oddsmakers opening number of -10.5 and hit the Wizards with authority.

While no coach player or team will admit to looking ahead, because “we play them one at a time” (insert fingers into throat), all the Orlando players must have had the same virus as Cleveland on Wednesday night, when they lost at home for just the eighth time this season to Toronto (the mighty purple dinosaurs) as 10-point home favorites 99-95.

This sets up tonight’s encounter for the Cavs and Magic, with both having been pointing towards this game and each having a heighten sense of urgency trying to avoid consecutive losses.

“We’ve been taking a lot of things for granted,” Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy said talking about his team’s recent efforts. “We’ve got a real tough stretch coming up here, and if we continue to play like this, it could get real ugly. … Hopefully, it will serve as a wake-up call.”

Orlando (55-19, 47-27 ATS) hasn’t taken much for granted this year and are 13-5 ATS after one or more losses and 18-8 against the spread if they failed to cover. Prior to being upset by Toronto, the Magic had won nine of 10 (7-3 ATS) and its only real failure being not meeting the coach’s high expectations.

Let’s be honest, it’s hard to come down on Cleveland (61-14, 44-31 ATS). Throw the loss to Washington in the garbage disposal. It is true they have not been covering as many spreads of late as oddsmakers have assigned larger figures and some of the opponents don’t exactly light the emotional fire. With the Cavaliers 13-4 ATS when playing on back-to-back days this season, all of the peripheral stuff goes away.

Betjamaica.com has established Orlando as 3.5-point favorites with a total of 187. The teams have traded home court wins this season, with the Magic owning both covers and overall, Orlando is 8-1 and 6-3 ATS since 2006-07 season.

Orlando lost the last meeting just over two weeks ago and is 16-6 ATS revenging a loss vs opponent and is 17-6 ATS if they lost their last game by six or fewer points. Dwight Howard and teammates are 14-4 UNDER versus teams scoring 99 or more points a game in the second half of the season.

Part of the reason Cleveland struggles with Orlando is all the deep shooting they do. The Cavaliers are 6-15 ATS against teams who attempt 18 or more 3-point shots a game in the latter part of the season. Part of the failure is LeBron James and his mates have built up big leads and teams just fire away trying to close the gap, however in the Magic’s case it is by design and they haven’t handled the situation well. The Cavs are 22-11 UNDER after four straight games committing 14 or less turnovers this season.

This engaging contest will be viewable on ESPN starting at 8 Eastern and know this; Cleveland is 12-0 ATS off a road loss this season.