King James in Action – Cleveland at Houston

Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Houston Rockets 8:00 ET

Non-conference sports betting action highlights the first leg of tonight’s TNT doubleheader when the red hot Cleveland Cavaliers (44-11, 37-18 ATS) and Houston Rockets (36-21, 26-30-1 ATS) partake in their final regular season battle against one another in the Toyota Center.

After picking up their fifth straight win and cover their last time out against the Memphis Grizzlies, the Cavaliers are now the NBA’s best bet with 37 ATS victories on the year. Tonight’s game marks the beginning of a difficult four-game road trip that has Cleveland squaring off against the aforementioned Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, Atlanta Hawks, and Miami Heat. As a visitor this season, the Cavs are 18-10 SU & 16-12 ATS. With a 17.5-game lead in the Central Division, they’re a shoe in to win the division for the second year in a row, but have bigger fish to fry as the #1 seed in the East is what Lebron and company clamor for most. With Boston shockingly losing to the LA Clippers last night, they currently hold the #1 seed by percentage points over the Celtics.

As for Houston, it’s currently riding a five game SU winning streak of its own that saw it cover three of those games for NBA bettors. They currently sit 3.5-games in back of the Southwest Division leading San Antonio Spurs, and hold a one-game lead over the Portland Trailblazers for the fourth seed in the West. They’ve been an excellent $$$-Line wager in the Toyota Center this season (23-6 SU), but have cost their backing bettors a couple units by posting a 13-15-1 ATS mark.

BetOnline oddsmakers opened Cleveland up as short one-point road favorites in this contest, but the betting public voiced its opinion loud and clear by quickly betting the visiting Cavs up to 3.5-point chalks; the game ‘total’ currently sits at 186. Cleveland is 3-2 SU but just 2-3 ATS when installed a road favorite of 3.5-6 points this season, while Houston failed to cover the lone time it was installed a home underdog against the Los Angeles Lakers; lost 105-100 as four-point dawgs back in mid January.

Cleveland won and covered against the Rockets in their first meeting of the season back in late December. The 99-90 final saw the Cavs cover the 7.5-point spread and the combined 189-points barely surpassed the 186.5-point closing ‘total.’ The ‘over’ snapped a streak of four straight low scoring games in the series; the ‘under’ is now 8-2 ATS the L/10 overall meetings, and has cashed for ‘total’ bettors in five of these teams last six meetings in Houston.

The Cavs have struggled in this venue dropping each of their L/4 visits ATS and Houston will be very ready to take on the Eastern Conference’s current #1 seed. Ron Artest will certainly be up to the challenge as he and Lebron got into it a bit in the first meeting. With the ‘under’ already a lucrative 17-11 ATS with Cleveland playing the role of visitor and the fact that it’s cashed in 17 of Houston’s 29 home games, we’re going to back the low side of tonight’s ‘total’ and look for an ugly defensive minded battle.

Rose’s Recommendation: 3* CLEVELAND/HOUSTON UNDER 186

(Grading Scale = 1* to 5*)