The 2014-15 NBA schedule is about to be released Wednesday night but media sources have already spilled the beans with regards to the marquee Christmas Day matchups.
Oddsmakers at Sportsbook.ag were quick to post their openers for the Xmas Day games, including LeBron James' return to South Beach since leaving the Miami Heat and returning home to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Here’s a glance at those Dec. 25 contests and the explanations behind those lines from Sportsbook.ag oddsmaker Peter Childs:
Cleveland Cavaliers at Miami Heat (+3)
“Personally I FEEL Cavs must be more of a pick’em price, maybe -1 or -1.5. But there’s absolute confidence they’re going to tackle numerous action without reference to what percentage we put out there, so we’re going to position a little a ‘tax’ on arguably probably the most public team going into the season, hence opening -3 point road favorite.
“I see this game closing with the warmth favored, especially if the Cavs get off to a slow start. Remember, it’s a completely new team with numerous new working parts. We all know the warmth will come into this game fired as much as win, the group - that is usually very vanilla in Miami - might be raucous. It will likely be an electrical atmosphere, so the homecourt edge should be placed into this line.”Los Angeles Lakers at Chicago Bulls (-9.5)
“The Bulls could close much higher too, for my part. We’re starting at 9.5 and that i can only see this number going up. If Rose comes out playing in addition to reports are from Team USA camp, I MAY see this game closing -10.5 or higher. If Kobe isn’t back ONE HUNDRED PC yet, then almost certainly this line will go up.”
“Other than Kobe, who’s going to be the Lakers’ starting five? You can’t expect Nash being healthy. We all know Boozer may want to play hard and well against his former team, who’s left that anyone’s heard of? Swaggy P? Jeremy Lin? He was brought for salary cap reasons and never as a result of his talent. Julius Randle? He’s a rookie and hasn’t proved something within the NBA. Versus a Bulls team with Rose, now Gasol, Butler, Gibson, Noah: they’re loaded, the Lakers are not.”Los Angeles Clippers at Golden State Warriors (-2.5)
“The Warriors number was pretty simple. Huge revenge spot for them as they lost to the Clippers within the playoffs they usually play well at home. I'VE the Clippers rated higher in our power rankings, but big time homecourt edge for the soldiers. I do believe the Clips gets some early action but zero concern with this number. Again, really easy to set and that i believe it’s a powerful number for this game.”
Oklahoma City Thunder at San Antonio Spurs (-5)
“Same thing because the Warriors, this line was really easy for us to make. Every body of my guys came with Spurs -5, it was essentially the similar number during their last playoff series and nothing has changed for either team. Spurs are ranked higher power ratings wise they usually have home court on this game, so we’ll open -5 and notice the way it goes.”
Washington Wizards at Big apple Knicks (-1.5)
“The Wizards are the simpler team, however the Knicks are still a public team and there’s absolute confidence they need to be better than last year. I FEEL the Knicks will tackle some money on this spot, being at home and again, being the more public team.”
Read More... [Source: Covers.com: NBA News and Stories]
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