indiancowboy
4 Unit Play. NBA (POD). #504. Take the Chicago Bulls +8.5 over the Cleveland Cavaliers (Thursday @ 8pm est).
2-0 Tuesday: We are doing very well.
*Jazz/OKC Over (Winner)
*Illinois -7 (Winner)
Going for 4 Straight NBA Winning Weeks.
14-7 (66%) last 21 NBA PODs.
Going for Back to Back Winning College Ball Weeks.
Jan NBA: 8-4.
2-1 NBA this week.
2-1 in CBB this week.
I don't make it a habit of going against the Cavaliers and in fact, I am much more inclined on a normal basis to play a Cleveland total rather than a side. But, today I think the situation calls for a play on Chicago. First, let me say that I think the Bulls have a great shot at winning outright today. You might think, but IC, the Bulls stink. But, the Bulls, despite fighting through plenty of injuries during the first half of the season find themselves at 17-22 and that is actually decent in the East as a .500 record will get you to the playoffs in the East. After all, the Hawks took the Celtics to 7 games and they were a sub .500 team when they made it to the playoffs last year as the 8th seed. Cleveland is 26-10 ATS this season. They are one of the ATS darlings throughout the season along with the Magic and Bucks. But, Cleveland runs into a Bulls team that just recently got healthier. In fact, that return to health showed as 72% of the public got burned backing Toronto with the short -4 lay at home only to see the Bulls win that game outright essentially laying claim to that game from start to finish. The Bulls are that much deeper now with the return of two of their key starters in Kirk, Deng and you can toss Gooden into the mix as he is playing more minutes. So, essentially, this team has 3 of its starters back along with the usual suspects of Rose, Gordon, Thomas and Noah. Remember, these two teams have history from the "Ben Wallace" trade that featured the likes of Gooden coming to Chicago and Wallace going to the Cleveland. These two teams do not like each other one bit. The last time they met, Cleveland took it upon them to defeat this team 117-92 when the Bulls were not as healthy. Well, much has changed. The Bulls have their point guard back in Kirk, Rose will move to a shooting guard role, tack on Gordon, Thomas, Noah, Deng, Nocioni and Thabo - you have a team team that will run 8 or 9 deep (Larry Hughes will likely get minutes against his former team here). What you have is a featured game on a limited card in Thursday night NBA with the public likely getting buried here. The Cavs have covered 3 straight but they run into a Bulls team that is healthier, looking for revenge and looking for a big home win after a series of tough losses at home to the Twolves and Thunder (who both are on great ATS runs btw). Bottom line, Bulls likely stay competitive from start to finish as the Cavs are the same team that lost to the Wizards on the road with revenge and will find themselves in a dogfight tonight.
4 Unit Play. #580. Take Marist +8.5 over Siena (Thursday @ 7:30pm est). Today is the day of 8.5 it seems as if you are my NBA client you know what I'm talking about. As per this game, there is no reason why Marist should not be able to hang tough in this conference game. Look, I follow the Big 10, Metro Atlantic and Big East basketball very closely and in particular, I love making selections on the Big 10 and Metro Atlantic games. Metro games are fun to make selections on because of the fact they are an "under the radar" conference. Remember, we rode Niagara for a large portion of the season as well as Fairfield and now we are about to start riding the Marist bandwagon. Do you remember how Marist did in their last game? They defeated the second best team in the conference in Niagara 20 points at home to go 3-3 this year in conference play. They won that huge game over Niagara coming home after tough losses to Rider and Manhattan on the road so they were absolutely fired up for that game. Such is the case in Metro Atlantic play similar to Big10 play, home court is truly a big deal. Remember, these two teams have already hooked up earlier this year back on December 9th when Siena won 77-60. Well, Marist was not playing solid basketball then, but they are now. They have revenge. They are a team that just beat the #2 team in the conference by 20 points at home and now face the #1 team in the conference and you better believe they will be up for this game as will their respective crowd. Don't get me wrong, Siena is a good team. After all, they played Kansas recently and lost to them by 7 points on the road and are a 12-5 overall team. But, teams in the Metro are not intimidated by Siena one bit. Remember, Rider lost to this team by just 10 on the road at Siena, Siena beat Fairfield by just 6 at home and defeated Manhattan by just 4 points on the road. This is a game that Marist will compete extensively in and likely will lose by 3-5 points.
Good luck,
Indian Cowboy.