1) Cleveland (6-0 SU and ATS) at (4) Atlanta (4-5 SU and ATS)
After a pair of blowout home wins, the Cavaliers take their perfect postseason mark on the road to face the desperate Hawks at Philips Arena.
Cleveland pounded Atlanta 105-85 Thursday night as a heavy 12½-point chalk to take a 2-0 series lead, again riding its stifling defense to an easy victory. The Cavs allowed just 35 first-half points, taking a 24-point lead into the break. LeBron James paced the rout with 27 points, five assists and four steals. Cleveland hit 53.5 percent from the floor (38 of 71) while holding Atlanta to just 34.9 percent (29 of 83), and the Cavs have now won all six of their playoff starts by double digits.
The Hawks couldn’t get a single player to 20 points in Game 2, with Maurice Evans managing a team-high 16. Joe Johnson, the squad’s leading scorer this season, had just 10 points on 5-for-15 shooting, leaving late in the third quarter with an ankle injury that could limit him tonight. The SU winner has cashed in each of the Hawks’ nine playoff games, with every one of those contests decided by double digits.
Cleveland, allowing a suffocating 78.2 ppg in the playoffs while scoring 96.3, is now 5-1 SU (3-3 ATS) in the season series with Atlanta. The favorite has cashed in 18 of the last 26 meetings, and the Cavs are 7-3 ATS in their last 10 visits to Philips Arena. However, the home team is 5-1 ATS in the last six clashes.
Cleveland is 29-14 SU (24-19 ATS) on the highway this year, and Atlanta is 34-11 SU (25-19-1 ATS) in the home jerseys.
The Cavaliers are on a bundle of pointspread rolls, including 10-0 overall, 9-0 after a SU win, 7-0 in second-round playoff games, 4-0 on the road and 16-3 as a playoff chalk. The Hawks are on ATS upswings of 14-6-1 at home and 8-2 as a home pup, but they carry negative ATS streaks of 1-8 as an underdog and 1-5 catching points in the playoffs.
The under for Cleveland is on stretches of 4-1 overall, 15-5 in conference semifinal games and 7-1 when favored in the postseason. Likewise, the under for Atlanta is on tears of 8-3 overall, 11-3 against winning teams and 6-0 with the Hawks as a playoff pup.
In this rivalry, though, the over is 5-2 in the last seven meetings (1-1 in this series).
ATS ADVANTAGE: CLEVELAND easy $