Atlanta Hawks at Cleveland Cavaliers Betting Odds


Opening Line: Hawks +5.5 / Cavaliers -5.5 O/U 195.5

Time: 8 PM EST Friday April 2, 2010 on ESPN

Tonight in an Eastern Conference match up the Cleveland Cavaliers host the Atlanta Hawks. This game is important for the Hawks, but really means nothing for the Cavs. Cleveland has already wrapped up the top seed in the playoffs and Atlanta is in the 3rd spot only one game ahead of the 4th place Boston Celtics. If the Hawks can stay in 3r they would avoid playing Cleveland in a possible 2nd round playoff series.

The Cavs have won 2 straight and are 9-1 in their last 10 games and the Hawks have also won 2 in a row and are 7-3 in their last 10 games.

This season the Cavs are a NBA best 33-4 at home and 37-37-1 ATS and the Hawks are 17-19 on the road and 44-31 ATS.

Both teams played on Wednesday night in their last games, as the Hawks were impressive in their 109-92 win over the defending champion L.A. Lakers and the Cavs beat the Milwaukee Bucks 101-98.

The Cavs have won their last 8 games against the Hawks.

Atlanta has been a solid team this season, but not on the road where they are 2 games under .500, have lost 3 straight, and 5 of their last 7.

This will be the first game that Atlanta will face the Cavs with mid-season acquisition Antawn Jamison (19 ppg 8.3 rpg), who averaged 23.2 ppg and 12.7 rpg in his last 9 games against the Hawks while with the Washington Wizards.

LeBron James (29.7 ppg) will get his points tonight, but the Hawks need to keep Jamison and Mo Williams (15.4 ppg) from having big scoring games.

Cleveland is a solid team on the boards with a rebounding differential of +4.0 rpg while the Hawks are at -0.1 rpg. However, the Cavs will be without 6th man Anderson Varejao (8.7 ppg 7.8 rpg), who is the team's 2nd leading rebounder.

The Hawks will need a to play a well-balanced game on offense to win this game, as they will need inside scoring from Al Horford (14.2 ppg) and good scoring games from Joe Johnson (21.3 ppg) and Josh Smith (15.8 ppg).

The Hawks come into this game with a lot of confidence after beating the Lakers in their last game and if they can beat the Cavs tonight they will have a TON of confidence hading into the playoffs.

Betting Trends

Atlanta is 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games, 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games as a road underdog, and has an Over record of 5-0 in their last 5 games as a road underdog.

Cleveland is 2-5 ATS in their last 7 home, 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games against teams with a winning record, and has an Under record of 5-2 in their last 7 games.

In the last 6 games between these 2 teams in Cleveland the total has gone Over 5 times.

Our Selection : Take Cleveland +5.5.


Future Betting Odds

NBA Handicapping

Dallas Mavericks at Miami Heat Odds 6-12
The Mavs are up 3-2 in this series heading to South Beach and for the Heat to force Game 7 they will have to play better in the 4th quarter, especially LeBron James. 5Dimes has the hometown Heat as 5-point favorites in Game 6 with a total of 187.

NBA Toolbox

Sportsbooks