Dave Cokin
Bonus Play Tuesday
RAPTORS at CAVALIERS (Wednesday) 8:35 PM
Take: CAVALIERS -10.5
Hey, hats off to the Raptors. I’ve had a nice run with my NBA post-season plays, but the Monday night call on Cleveland was a clear wrong side. There was a brief flirtation with possibly winning and covering when the Cavs went up by three with a handful of minutes still to play. But just when it appeared that Toronto was melting, they reassumed control and went on to the six-point win.
No question about it in my mind, the fear factor no longer exists for the Raptors. They got bombed out in the first two games of this series and looked like a vastly inferior team. But now this series is down to a best-of-three and all the pressure is on the heavily favored Cavaliers.
I think this Cleveland team will respond with a big game as they get back home. It’s not that I’m dismissing what the Raptors just accomplished, but let’s just say consistency has not been their forte and I’m not suddenly a great believer in this Toronto squad. The Cavaliers are still the far more talented entry and one would certainly hope that any overconfidence they might have had is no longer in play.
The NBA post-season zigzag theory, as mentioned previously, is mostly a myth, at last as far as the last several years are concerned. But there is one aspect where it has continued to work extremely well, and Cleveland will fit that particular criteria to a tee in this game. Personally, I’m not a big angle guy, so for me that’s just bonus material.
My bottom line is that Cleveland has yet to lost a home game in these playoffs and aside from the very first game in the opening round when they had to battle hard to stave off the Pistons, it’s been really easy sledding for the Cavs. I expect a super motivated host on Wednesday night and while the suddenly resurgent Raptors aren’t likely to just roll over, I like the Cleveland side to make a strong statement in this game. My Game Four play is on the Cavaliers minus the points.