Christmas Day Hoops
Written by Greg Waters
Sat, 26 Dec 2009
Category sportsbook
Feedback Rating - no votes
With college bowl games and the upcoming NFL playoffs, pigskin is normally the option of choice for bettors during the holiday season and while there will be NFL football on the 25th of December, the NBA has made Christmas Day one of their regular season highlights.
This year there are five NBA games on the schedule on Christmas Day.
- The schedule starts with the Miami Heat in the Big Apple to play the New York Knicks (Knicks are favored by 2).
Over/Under bettors take note as these two have combined for five straight Overs in their last five meetings. Online sportsbooks currently have this Total set at 199.
Miami didn’t play on Christmas Day last season, but they have the previous two, defeating the Los Angeles Lakers 101-85 on Dec. 25, 2006, covering at +1.5 and losing 96-82 to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2007, failing to cover as a 4.5-point underdog.
- Two of the association’s storied franchises will take part in the second and third games of the five-game schedule.
With the second-best regular season record in the entire NBA, the Boston Celtics will be in Orlando to play the Magic, who own the third-best record.
The sports betting public usually gives a lot of love to the Celtics, but take note, Boston is only 2-9 straight up in their last 11 visits to Amway Arena. Also worth noting, the last 10 games between these two in Orlando have produced only 2 Overs with 8 Unders.
The last 11 games overall between the Magic and Celtics have produced 2 Overs and 9 Unders.
- The marquee matchup of the day will feature the Cleveland Cavaliers at the STAPLES Center to play the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers — in other words LeBron vs. Kobe.
Books have the Lakers favored by 5.
In the Lakers’ last 15 home contests against Cleveland, they are only 5-10 ATS and in their last 14 home games in the month of December, the Lakers are 4-10 ATS.
The Cavs’ last 15 road games have yielded an ATS record of 10-5.
- The Lakers’ weak roommate, the Clippers, will also see action on the 25th, with a game in Phoenix against the Suns.
In the Clippers’ last 10 visits to Phoenix, the Over has cashed seven times while the Under has thrice.
Christmas Day hoops will conclude with the Denver Nuggets in Portland with the Trail Blazers.
Denver has had its way with the Blazers, going 13-6-1 ATS in its last 20 visits to Portland.
Happy Holidays everybody.
link: http://wheretobet.com/redirect/sportsbetting.com-205/all