Matt Rivers, Senior Sports Handicapper for OffshoreInsiders has a Monday sports pick on the Cleveland Cavaliers (+17.5) at Miami.
Reasoning: I played Cleveland yesterday and watched that number be a bit too high in a cover and will go back to that well today. Now I clearly don't think that the Cavs are anything other than horrific/pathetic and abysmal all rolled into one but they still do have something and up against an old "friend" in LeBron may show that something. Granted it's not going to be close to grabbing the outright and with Mo Williams banged up we are seeing a ton of garbage no-names on the court but with both teams on a back-to-back I just don't see the Heat being all that fired up today to lay a thumping.
Last month the Cavs visited Miami as the huge dog and had a chance to literally win the game. In fact Cleveland led for the majority of it and just fell short at the end. This thing probably won't be as hotly contested with LeBron, D Wade and Chris Bosh all back in the lineup and relatively healthy but at this gargantuan number with at least Antawn Jamison, J.J. Hickson and Boobie Giibson it's just too much. Plus how about former Michigan Wilverine Manny Harris last night? Maybe this kid is going to make it in the league, huh?
The Heat won an emotional game yesterday on the road at Oklahoma City against a fired up Thunder squad and crowd. Beating Durant and Westbrook quite possibly may have zapped some energy creating a bit of a letdown situation tonight.
Miami is great and can blow out anybody at anytime and certainly is light years superior than this Cleveland team which has won one game in the past few months. But with that said I am backing professionals, no matter how inept they have been of late and will take my chances at this unbelievable and almost unthinkable number.
Top expert pick on this game: Cleveland +17.5