Cleveland vs. Atlanta

This game will have a playoff atmosphere as the Hawks have knockout revenge after getting swept 4-0 by Cleveland last year. All four of those games were extremely low scoring, and tonight’s game will play out just the same. Those four games all played to 190 points or less, and in fact, only three of the last ten meetings between the Cavs and Hawks have seen more than 190 points scored. Cleveland has scored 102 points or more in their last four games, but they were facing Western teams that love to get up and down the court. And despite the big point totals, only two of those games produced more than 190 points. So that means Cleveland’s defense is playing really good right now; they held three of those four opponents to 91 points or less. The Hawks have also scored a lot of points recently, but like the Cavs, they’ve played a slew of fast paced teams. Atlanta wasn’t afraid to run in those games, but tonight will much different against the stout Cleveland defense. The average total set in the eight games between these two last year was 186, so there’s some good value with this total set 7 points higher tonight.

under 195

Marquette vs. West Virginia

If you just look at West Virginia’s last three games, it may appear that tonight’s double digit pointspread is too high. But two of those games came on the road at good teams that play on strong home courts, Cleveland St and Seton Hall. Even though they only won those games by 2 points and by 6 points (in overtime) respectively, the Mountaineers had big leads. They led at Cleveland St by 13 points at the half and led by 10 points with less than 4 minutes to play at Seton Hall. Their other close game came (a 10-point win) against a very good Ole Miss team that runs the same sets and defense as West Virginia because Andy Kennedy was a Bob Huggins assistant at Cincinnati. So just looking at the final scores really doesn’t tell the whole story. West Virginia is indeed one of the best teams in the country. They have NBA talent on their roster and their defense is very good. And considering they haven’t fired their best recently, West Virginia is ready for a peak performance tonight as they look to avenge their worst loss of last year. Marquette beat them 22 points (75-53), but Marquette lost a ton of talent off that team, and they are nowhere close to West Virginia this season. The Mountaineers are simply bigger, deeper, and more talented than Marquette, and they cruise to easy win tonight on their strong home floor.

Wet Vagina-12