Boston vs. Cleveland Series Preview

The first conflict of the conference semi-finals will take place in Cleveland, when Boston’s veteran team pays a visit. The Cavaliers are deep and varied team and are still a -125 futures wager to be the NBA champions later in June, while Boston fooled many by not being the old fogies many had believed against Miami and hurried the Heat out of the playoffs. This has been a series where the home teams have ruled the last several years.

(1) Cleveland vs (4) Boston

The waves were crashing on the north side of Lake Erie in Canada, some as high as six feet, as Cleveland fans got the news that nothing was structurally wrong with LeBron James right elbow and they let out a collective “Whew”.

The Cavaliers have a number of edges coming into this series in the personnel department and will look to exploit them. James is the best player in the NBA and plays the type of unselfish basketball that benefits all his teammates. From the Sports Network we find LeBron is only player in NBA history to accumulate at least 1,900 points, 525 rebounds and 475 assists in his first 65 career postseason games.

The Cleveland guards are not spectacular, but don’t need to be. Mo Williams and Anthony Parker mostly position themselves away from the ball on offense for weakside jump shots and three pointers. Antawn Jamison and his array of shots is the extra scorer coach Mike Brown needed when teams double and triple James. Shaquille O'Neal is shadow of his former self, but with Zydrunas Ilgauskas and energetic Anderson Varejao, the Cavaliers really have options in the paint.

Since James arrived, this is the deepest team he’s been a part with Delonte West and Jamario Moon also adding their skills. Cleveland’s greatest strength as a team is their defense and opponents have converted just 44.2 percent against them. The Cavs start this series 14-4 ATS versus good shooting teams making 48 percent of their shots.

Boston proved that five players is better than one taking down Miami and faces a more daunting challenge in the Cavs, whom they eliminated in the postseason two years ago. The Grim Reaper had been reported on the team bus for most of the second half of the season, but the Celtics had several different players step up, like Ray Allen in last series.

Rajon Rondo is lightning quick and for the most part more than compensates for a below average jump shot. He rebounds, penetrates into the lane to score or finds open teammate and though not a great one-on-one defender, he use his quickness to makes steals and get into passing lanes. He and Allen have to dominate the Cleveland guards in scoring and rebounding.

Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett have visibly slowed and this is area Boston can’t be destroyed or this series moves along swiftly. Along with Kendrick Perkins, Glen Davis and Rasheed Wallace (a washout), Pierce and KG are going to have to total 50-60 points each game unless the guards play exemplarily. The C’s come in 9-3-1 ATS as playoff underdogs.

If Boston doesn’t play with the needed energy and gumption, this is five game series if James is 90 to 100 percent. The teams divided four contests and the Over was 4-0. Cleveland is 8-1 and 7-2 ATS at Quicken Loans Arena vs. the Celtics, however they are 1-9 (7-3 ATS) in Boston and will have to deal with boisterous crowd and excited old geezers not ready to call it quits.

3Daily Winners Pick- Cleveland (-425) in six over Boston (+355)

NBA Thursday Hoops

With the New York Yankees champions of baseball for a 27th time and college basketball and NFL Thursday games starting next week, the NBA has a rather uncluttered sports marketplace for its televised doubleheader on TNT. Take a gander at tonight’s matchups and key betting information.

Chicago at Cleveland 8:00E

The idea behind bring in Shaquille O’Neal was to have greater inside presence and be able to contain Orlando’s Dwight Howard and Boston’s big men once the playoffs started. Cleveland coach Mike Brown new it would take time for all the pieces to mesh together, but Cavaliers fans expected everything to work from day one. After the Cavs (3-2, 2-3 ATS) lost first two games, Cleveland talk radio was alive, wondering what was wrong. Since then, cooler heads have prevailed and the Cavaliers will be going after fourth straight win this season. Coach Brown is defensive-minded and while the offense has not sorted out completely, his club is 11-2 ATS after three or more consecutive Under’s.

Chicago (2-2, 1-3 ATS) is a .500 team, in spite of horrible offensive start. The Bulls are shooting 40.9 percent from the field (27th), making only 22.2 percent from behind the arc (29th) and are dreadful 69.9 percent (27th) from the charity stripe. Despite all iron clanging, they trailed Milwaukee at home by 18 points in the third quarter and roared back to win 83-81. Chicago is integrating Luol Deng back into the lineup after missing the last quarter of the season and playoffs with leg stress fracture.

Bookmaker.com has Cleveland as 10.5-point favorite, with total of 187.5. The Cavs are 9-2 SU and ATS against Chicago in last 11 meetings and they are 15-5 ATS after a cover as a double digit favorite. The Bulls will look to be a pesky underdog and they are 7-2-1 ATS when catching 5 to 10.5 points as visiting pooch.

San Antonio at Utah 10:30 E

The San Antonio Spurs (2-1 SU&ATS) in the offseason set out to get younger and more athletic up and down the roster, without altering its three core players. The too early to tell results have the Spurs scoring 113 points twice in three games, which is a dramatic shift. The most important acquisition was Richard Jefferson, giving San Antonio a wing player that adds versatility. Keeping Manu Ginobili as healthy as possible is imperative, since he’s a great scoring option off the bench and clutch fourth quarter scorer. The 19-point victory over Sacramento on Halloween means the Spurs are rested, however just 3-13-1 ATS after a double digit triumph.

Utah (1-3 SU&ATS) will try to avoid its slowest start in seven seasons. The Jazz appeared set to be .500, but were outscored 44-18 at Dallas in the fourth quarter, as they had no answer for Dirk Nowitzki, who scored 29 of his 40 points in the last 12 minutes, handing Utah a 96-85 avalanche-like loss.

Utah’s resolve will be tested as 1.5-point home underdogs with total of 199.5. The Jazz are 15-4 ATS in home games after failing to cover three of their last four against the spread, but are just 5-18 ATS as underdogs. The Spurs are 2-5 ATS at Utah in last seven tries; however the favorite covers 75 percent of the time (21-7) when these two Western Conference squads collide.

Eyes Wide Open in Phoenix

Are the Phoenix Suns turning into a joke? For starters, Commish Stern has to peeved the biggest news each day over the weekend in the NBA was not the All-Star game, but the ongoing front office saga of the Suns. Owner Robert Sarver changes his mind quicker than a six year old. One minute he wants to win the NBA title and the next, move salary. Bobby, make up your mind!

Steve Kerr has shown his inexperience throughout since being hired. The move for Shaq was calculated risk and though nobody really believed it would work, Phoenix wasn’t going to win a NBA title unless they tried something. The Suns have turned out to be one of those teams that were elite in the league for a number of years, but never good enough to get over the hump. The hiring of Porter was misguided for many reasons, which ultimately all turned out to be true.

Terry Porter was good hire in principle, the problem was the roster. The Suns are littered with one dimensional offensive-minded player’s with almost no interest in playing solid defense. Asking Porter to coach established players that have had a higher level (not the top level like the Big Cactus) of success to change their ways, well unless the team leaders bought in, this was going nowhere and Kerr should have been wise enough to know this.

Porter might be a good coach, however was in the wrong situation. Part of being a coach or any leader for that matter is being a salesman. Porter appeared to believe the professionalism he played with should be how the players should react. The former Portland Trailblazer was never able to line up the right players to get the team to follow his leadership, which ultimately led to his demise.

The Suns players have also been child-like. Here is a group of players who have never won anything (except one) and they flat out refused to truly embrace something different that MIGHT have made them better. Amare Stoudemire was one of the biggest frauds. He was happy as clam last season when Shaq arrived and he could play power forward and dominate with greater freedom in uptempo style. But when his touches and scoring opportunities were being used up in new scheme, his displeasure and body language could not have been more apparent.

With Jason Richardson getting into trouble twice with the law since being traded to the desert, this is a volatile situation and Alvin Gentry himself goes into a dicey spot.

Gentry is used to being a go between as assistant, now he will be calling the shots. The players may be thankful for looser offensive reins, but he is still going to ask them to play defense. Throw in the roster isn’t settled yet either, with Stoudemire still possibly on the move, since Sarver isn’t about to overpay for a fringe playoff team that is over the salary cap.

What was for years one of the most stable franchises in the NBA, is now in turmoil with no simple solutions.

All-Star Party in the Desert

It is confirmed. The NBA's All-Star extravaganza has officially become the weekend's biggest block party.

After watching the Eastern and Western Conference team introductions last night I felt like I had just seen a rap video on MTV.

They didn't have the chrome rims or bikini car washes, but the elaborate production glistened with a stage full of dancers, blaring music, DJs and whatever else you might need to make the hardfloor go hip-hop.

And just when I thought the event couldn't get any more gangsta, Shaquille O'Neal appeared. Sirens went off, smoke filled the air and the Diesel emerged from a closed box.

Flanked by these JabbaWockeeZ mimes (I guess they won some reality show called America's Best Dance Crew but I wouldn't know anything about that because I don't watch that stuff) Shaq busted into some sort of rhythmic movement of the body and legs that might be considered a form of dancing. It was comparable to his professional "rapping" endeavors.

So after about 45 minutes of meaningless charades the association's 58th All-Star game commenced, and actually started out with some defense. At the end of the first quarter it looked like a normal game with the score 34-27 in favor of the West. But by halftime both teams had nearly hit the 70-point mark (72-67), defense was lagging and the game began to look like a Suns and Warriors shootout.

The West expanded their lead to about 20, giving them a nice cushion throughout the third quarter (and the rest of the game). Then the fourth quarter started and the contest began to emulate a traveling circus. Four to five steps were being taken on every non-existent traveling violation and cherry-picking was happening at both ends of the court.

The last minute of the game was the Dunk Contest Part Deaux. Alley oops, windmill jams and reverse slams. And let me just tell you how the last score of the game went down. LeBron James held the ball for about 20 seconds and then both teams cleared out so he could toss himself a pass off the backboard and throw down a thundering dunk.

This final bucket promptly sent the score over the total Vegas had offered by one point. I would have been sick if I had taken the under, but then again you might already be sick if you're betting on the NBA All-Star game.

And if what TNT and the NBA provided already wasn't enough to roll around in laughter until next year, they capped it off with a rekindling love affair.

Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal were named the co-MVPs. How cute is that? Can they build up the love/hate soap opera of these two any more? Give me a break.

I can't wait until the 59th NBA All-Star game next year, it should be about as uneventful as all the other ones.


Scott Cooley shares his thoughts on various subjects.