Thursday's winner ...
30 Dime: CAVALIERS in the First Half ONLY (minus the points vs. Magic)
SPECIAL NOTE: This is a first-half play on Cleveland ONLY! Again, you're to play Cleveland minust the points in the first half!
Cavaliers (First Half ONLY)
Surprised? Surprised after riding the Magic four straight times and cashing four straight winners in this series that I would jump off Orlando tonight in Game 5 despite the fact it has all the momentum while the Cavaliers have all the pressure. Despite the fact the Magic have OWNED Cleveland? Despite the fact I’ve been telling you for more than a week now that Orlando is a terrible matchup for the Cavaliers? Allow me to explain.
First off, even though they’ve had major problems with the Magic for the last two-plus seasons, I have no doubt that the Cavaliers are going to win this game tonight and force a Game 6. Not to go all Oliver Stone on you, but you can be sure that the NBA has sent word to its officiating crew tonight to, well, let’s just say protect the home team, much the same way that the Lakers were protected versus the Nuggets last night. I am not, however, 100 percent confident that Cleveland can cover this big number for the entire game, because, A) they haven’t shown all season they can cash against Orlando, and B) they’ve been prone to second-half collapses in this series.
On the other hand, the Cavs have been an outstanding first-half team in this series. Get this: In Games 1 and 2 at home, Cleveland led Orlando 63-48 and 56-44 at the break, easily cashing the first-half ticket in both games. Then in Game 3 in Orlando, the Cavs trailed just 42-41 after two periods, but they came back in Game 4 on Tuesday and had a 58-50 halftime advantage.
In fact, if you check out Cleveland’s boxscores in their six playoff home games so far, you’ll see they led at halftime in every contest by the following margins: 12, 14, 5, 24, 15 and 12 points. And they covered the spread in five of those six games, and with one more bucket in Game 1 against Atlanta, the Cavs would be 6-for-6 in first halves at home.
Bottom line: If there’s one thing I’m absolutely certain of tonight it’s that the Cavs are going to come out like a team possessed, and nobody more so than LeBron James. At the same time, the Magic have come out flat in the first half in every game of this series so far, getting outscored by an average margin of 54.5 to 46. Now, up 3-1 in this series, it would only be natural for Orlando to lack focus and intensity in this contest, at least early on. If that happens, there’s a very good chance the Cavaliers will go into the locker room at the half up 20-plus points.
Simply put, without question the best value on the board tonight is the first half of this Game 5 showdown in Cleveland. Look for the Cavaliers to make an early statement and pounce on Orlando from the opening tip and cash easily.