Pro Basketball Betting: Miami Heat vs Cleveland Cavaliers Predictions

Miami Heat at Cleveland Cavaliers
Thursday, 12/2/10, 8:00 PM EDT, TV: TNT
Opening Point Spread: Miami -6
Current Betting Line: Miami -5.5
Opening Total: 192
Current Total: 191.5

All eyes will be on LeBron James with the Miami Heat visiting the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena

Miami heads to Cleveland on Thursday night and that means the return of star LeBron James since he left the city and took his talents to South Beach. “It’s going to be tough, but I’m there to win a basketball game,” said James. “I understand. I understand how passionate fans are about sports. I’m ready for whatever response that I’m going to get.” The Heat are coming off an impressive 97-72 win in a game that saw them have a 34-point advantage at one point, as James was need for just 31 minutes and sitting out the entire fourth quarter in allowing the focus to turn to tonight. Miami is 11-8 overall on the season, including a 2-2 mark on the road against Eastern Conference opponents. The team is 5-13 ATS on the year and currently listed as road favorites on the NBA lines page.

The Heat will be meeting the Cavaliers for the first of four matchups this season. Last season, Cleveland won the season-series, 3-0, but that was with the services of James in its lineup. Miami is 42-38 all-time versus the Cavaliers in the regular season, including a 15-25 mark in games played in tonight’s city. Last night’s victory marked the fifth time the squad has beaten an opponent by at least 20 points this season. The Heat also held all five of Detroit’s starters to single-digits, marking the fourth time that has happened in franchise history.

Cleveland has alternated wins and losses over its last four games and will look to win its sixth game in a row against the Heat. In their last five meetings overall, the Cavaliers are outscoring the Heat by a 102.2-94.0 margin. In hopes of picking up the home underdog victory, the team is likely to rely heavily on its bench play, as the unit currently ranks first in the NBA in scoring averaging 44.7 points per game. The bench has outscored its opponents in all but four games this season. Cleveland enters this highly-anticipated contest with a 6-7 overall mark against the East, including a 3-4 record at Quicken Loans Arena.

The Cavaliers dropped a 106-87 home game to the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night, getting outscored in the paint by a large 60-26 margin. “That’s killed us,” said J.J. Hickson. Cleveland has been led offensively by the play of point guard Mo Williams, who is averaging 15.9 points and 5.3 assists, both teams highs. In the previous three games before the Boston contest, he was averaging 23.3 points, 8.3 assists and 4.3 rebounds. “I’m getting more healthy and closer to 100 percent,” he commented. “We’re staying on top of the groin injury.”

Bettors will be interested in knowing that the Heat are 2-10 ATS as a favorite, while the Cavaliers are 22-5 ATS after a SU loss of more than 10 points.