Posted on 12/20/2007 3:40:05 PM

NBA Wagering Trends - Los Angeles (- 3.5) vs. Cleveland (+ 3.5)

By D.S. Williamson

The Cavaliers are another team that has trouble against the spread at home. That’s not a good thing since the Los Angeles Lakers are pretty good against the spread on the road.

Perhaps, that is why the Lakers are favored by almost four points on the road versus the defending Eastern Conference champions. It won’t matter actually because the Cavaliers are a team that I think the Lakers will struggle with tonight. Before getting into that, though, let’s take a look at some trends:

The Los Angeles Lakers are 2 and 7 against the spread in their last 9 Thursday night games.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are 7 and 2 against the spread in their last 9 versus a team from the NBA Pacific Division.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are 3 and 8 against the spread in their last 11 home games.

Cleveland does well against the spread when they play an NBA Pacific Division team for the same reason that they do well during any game in the season - - LeBron James.

LeBron is a terrific player, no doubt, and I think that he will come up big tonight versus a team led by Kobe Bryant. If there is any killer instinct in him at all, it should come out tonight as LeBron cannot help but take this match-up versus the Lakers’ personally.

The Lakers are a very good team this year. If they played in the Eastern Conference, they’d definitely be one of the top four teams, but they do not play in the Eastern Conference. The Cavaliers do, but for some reason this team isn’t the same as last years’ squad.

The question in this game is whether or not LeBron can come up big once again for the Cavs. We know that Kobe will be on fire, but what about King James? It doesn’t matter. I believe that LeBron will probably score close to thirty points in this one, but I don’t think it will matter one bit.

The Cavs just aren’t good enough to beat a team like the Los Angeles Lakers. They do not match-up well at all and as good as LeBron is, the Lakers can counter - - actually, exceed - - with Kobe Bryant.

This just isn’t a good game for the Cavaliers. They will be playing from behind almost from the opening tip. That means that their only chance is for LeBron to have a special game and even though he will be great, he won’t be great enough in this one.

The BetUS NBA betting line is Los Angeles Lakers – 3.5 against the spread on the road versus the Cleveland Cavaliers.

I like the Lakers to cover that spread tonight.

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