NBA Playoff Betting – Cavaliers Will Roll In Game 1

These rivals didn’t meet in last year’s NBA postseason, but they will in 2010. Get ready for Game 1 of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ best-of-seven showdown against the Boston Celtics.

Boston Celtics @ Cleveland Cavaliers – Game 1
Saturday, May 1st – 8:10 PM ET
Quicken Loans Arena – Cleveland, OH
TV: TNT
NBA Betting Spread: Cavaliers -7

The Week That Was: Celtics

The great debate in the basketball world right now is this: Did the Boston Celtics re-emerge as an NBA title contender over the past few weeks, or did coach Doc Rivers’ team merely delay an inevitable playoff exit by one round? Did Boston transform itself after dispatching the Miami Heat in five games, or did the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference advance with relative ease only because its opponent was so thin?

Last Sunday, April 25, Boston did lose its only game of the first round against Miami, but it took a phenomenal 46-point effort from Dwyane Wade to give the Heat a 101-92 win against the Celtics. However, with nobody else on the Heat roster providing any substantial consistency, Miami had to get more from its supporting cast. On Tuesday, April 27, Wade scored “only” 31 points, and sure enough, the rest of the Heat managed just 55 points combined. As a result, Boston held down Miami in a 96-86 series-clinching win.

Did Boston beat a real team in round one, or did it beat Dwyane Wade and four ghosts? We’ll see if the Celtics have truly improved when they take on the Cavs.

The Week That Was: Cavaliers

The one thing that the Cleveland Cavaliers always hoped to avoid – like any other team with a top-tier superstar – happened this past week.

The only question now is this: Just how badly will an injured right elbow affect LeBron James on the basketball court?

On Sunday, April 25, LeBron frolicked and romped across the court, throwing down 37 points and casually draining a 44-foot jump shot (yes, jump shot, not a push shot or a baseball-pass prayer) in a 121-98 demolition of the Chicago Bulls. King James showed the basketball world why that moniker sticks to his name, as he led Cleveland to a convincing Game 4 win and a 3-1 series lead.

The satisfaction surrounding that win dissipated in Tuesday’s Game 5 against Chicago. Cleveland did eliminate the Bulls, 96-94, but everyone inside Quicken Loans Arena worried about LeBron after he shot a late-game foul shot with his left hand. A right elbow injury rendered his shooting arm numb. This elbow will command the attention of everyone following this series.

Outlook & Pick

Is Boston back, or was Miami simply that bad and limited? Is LeBron’s elbow normal enough to support and facilitate accurate mid-range jump shooting (long-range shooting is probably too much to ask at this point)? These and other fresh questions have emerged in the Boston-Cleveland series. The verdict for Game 1 is that Boston has not done enough to earn the trust of the NBA community. The Celtics’ halfcourt offense regularly melts down in the fourth quarters of games, and role players like Rasheed Wallace and Glen “Big Baby” Davis have been far too inconsistent over the course of the season. Wallace was a non-factor throughout the Miami series, and Big Baby delivered only one high-impact game versus the Heat (in Game 5). Over the course of the full series, we’ll learn about Cleveland, but Game 1 is a measure of Boston’s ability to perform on the road. The Celtics need to prove a lot of people wrong. Take Cleveland only because its opponent doesn’t yet seem to be ready to win.

NBA Playoff Betting Pick: Cavaliers