 VS 
Cleveland Cavaliers vs Boston Celtics There's been little doubt thus far in the NBA season that LeBron James has been the league's best player and the Boston Celtics have been the best team. Individual excellence meets team dominance on Tuesday as James and the Cleveland Cavaliers host the NBA-best Celtics in a matchup of clubs riding three-game winning streaks. Press clippings
Cavs are pretty excited about how their offense is purring.
''The offense is great right now,'' James said. ''It's the best we've played since I've been here. Guys understand. I've seen every double and triple team and know how to react to it.
''Getting up and down the court is important. Get more looks, you get more points.''
James, who was named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week, is showing an uncanny ability to find the open man.
''If a team is going to double me, they are going to be short-handed on the back side. There's no way you can guard our team if we're making shots like that. I know everything about any
defensive coverage that's been played against me. I've seen it all.''
And, he's exploited them all.
''When you double team somebody, and you space the floor correctly, you're going to get some great looks,'' Brown said. ''One of our staples offensively is spacing. Our guys have done a
pretty good job during double teams or tilts toward LeBron.
''You can highlight it or bold it, whatever. He's so unselfish. Not only is he trusting his teammates, his teammates are doing a better job reacting to the double teams. Look at some of
those 3s we took late in the (Indiana) game, our spacing was great on the back side.''
Guard Damon Jones said it's not quite a ''statement game.''
''It's going to be a big game,'' he said. ''We don't look at it as a statement game. We look at it as, 'Where are we?' That's going to be a great assessment of how we've grown from Game 1
to Game 15.''
The Celtics clobbered the Cavs in the preseason, 114-89, at TD Banknorth Garden on Oct. 26.
''We played well for three quarters of the preseason game,'' Jones said. ''We understand we can do some things to those guys, but have to do it for close to 48 minutes as possible.''
Injuries & Rumours
For the Celtics, Tony Allen (bruised right thigh) is doubtful and Ray Allen (rolled right ankle) is probable. For the Cavaliers, Larry Hughes (bruised left leg), Donyell Marshall (sprained right
wrist) and Cedric Simmons (sprained left ankle) are out.
Betting overview
So what do we have here? One really well working mechanism in Boston Celtics (just look at their winning record) and very ambitiuos team from Cleveland with incredible and heated
Lebron James.. (he hit Toronto and Indy with a ridiculous 67 points, 23 rebounds and 22 assists Saturday and Sunday). Also Cavaliers offense has been looking very good in last matches.
103.5 pts in average in last 10 games - really good numbers for them and most important thing that they are able to score in 93-105 range every match.
Over/under line for this match too much depends on Boston Celtics defense (only 89.7 per game this season) but I expect that Celtics defense to strugle a bit today in Cleveland. When
you're playing against Cavs you should find new defensive "Anti-Lebron" aid and currently I know only 2 teams with such aid: San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons. Other teams don't
have working defensive plan for Cavs. And Boston will need at least 1-2 quarters to find the way to stop Cavs offense.
Analyzing stats sheet my average numbers are: Cavs 103.5-103 and Celtics (103-90.5). So statistical line according to these numbers should be 97-103 into Celtics side. And I totally
agree with this line. Celtics offense can score 100 points today because as well their defense should struggle a bit against Lebron. So 192.5 line looking a bit too low for this game because numbers are saying it should be around 200 points.
As for a winner.. Honestly speaking I see Celtics slight favorite as line suggests but I am not even thinking about taking them in Cleveland. Reason is simple I never play against Cavs at
home if it is not Detroit Pistons (also I think that this year I would not back them in Cleveland too). When Cavs are motivated they can beat anyone especially when we are talking about
regular season. And I will cheer for Cavs today because I like their character and with hot Lebron they should have chances to win this game in the end.
Predicted score: Cavs 103 - 101 Celtics
Pick: Over 192 @ 1.945 PinnacleSports
 VS 
New Jersey Nets vs Memphis Grizzlies
The Nets return home to meet the Grizzlies (4-9), losers of five straight road games since winning their road opener Nov. 7. Memphis, though, is coming off a 124-118 home win over Washington on Saturday. The Grizzlies shot 52.6 percent from the field and made 13 of their 29 3-point attempts. Juan Carlos Navarro, who joined Memphis from Spain in the offseason, went 10-of-14 from the field and 5-of-8 from behind the arc to match his season high with 28 points. Kidd challenged his teammates during the skid, telling the media that the Nets have a tendency of "letting go of the rope" and playing with a "glass jaw" Soon after Kidd's comments, the Nets shot a season-high 53.7 percent from the field to end their slide with a 106-101 road victory over Portland on Wednesday. They followed that with a 98-93 victory at Seattle on Friday and a 102-100 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday in the finale of a four-game Western Conference road trip. It is becoming quite obvious that the fortunes of the New Jersey Nets are directly affected by the availability of Vince Carter. Carter and the surging Nets shoot for their fourth straight win Tuesday when they host the Memphis Grizzlies. A 10-year veteran, Carter played in each of the season's first six games, leading New Jersey to a 4-1 start. However, he sprained his right ankle late in a loss to the Boston Celtics on November 10. Carter missed the next five games - all losses - and the Nets managed 76.6 points per game as a team in his absence. Since his return, New Jersey has won three straight, scoring an average of 102 points in those games. On the other hand, the Grizzlies rode the hot hand of rookie Juan Carlos Navarro, who matched his season high with 28 points in Saturday's 124-118 home win over the Washington Wizards. Betting overviewI found one interesting stats on the net talking that: "Plays on rested home favorites priced from -4 to -15 points that are off three consecutive road wins, provided their win percentage is .800 or less. The Nets check into this game off road wins over the Lakers (102-100), Seattle (98-93) and Portland (106-101). " New Jersey has won and covered three straight vs. the Grizzlies, and all three games were blowout wins (113-102 and 105-92 last year, and 86-74 in March 2006). Today's game should be on the Nets side too because they must compensate their losing streak which hit them during Carter's injury. Their offense is working well since Vince returned to the roster and they should be capable to cover the spread today. Like movement says that punters are taking under and Nets handicap and it is the way I am thinking this game could go. Nets obviously knows how to defend under 100 points against Grizzlies and to score over 103 points at the same points. And that's how I see this game to end after 48 minutes of playing time: Predicted score: Nets 106 - 97 Grizzlies Pick: Nets -5.5 @ 1.85 PinnacleSports Related content New articles on this topic:
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