Cleveland was listed as the odds-on favorite to win the NBA Finals and few could argue against the club considering it looked unstoppable through the first two rounds of the playoffs. Mike Brown’s team posted a perfect 8-0 ledger and won every game by double digits albeit against the hapless Pistons and erratic Hawks.
Prior to Cleveland’s battle against Orlando in the Eastern Conference Finals, most pundits weren’t asking if the Cavs would win rather how many games would it take them to finish off the Magic.
| Orlando Magic 4-0 |
(80/1) |
| Orlando Magic 4-1 |
(40/1) |
| Orlando Magic 4-2 |
(10/1) |
| Orlando Magic 4-3 |
(15/1) |
| Cleveland Cavaliers 4-0 |
(7/2) |
| Cleveland Cavaliers 4-1 |
(7/5) |
| Cleveland Cavaliers 4-2 |
(7/2) |
| Cleveland Cavaliers 4-3 |
(3/1) | |
According to Bodog.com, the shortest Exact Series Finish odds for the Cavs were set for five games and if you’ve followed this series, then you’ll know that outcome is finished.
Orlando captured a 99-89 victory over Cleveland on Sunday giving the club a 2-1 series lead in the best-of-seven battle. Dwight Howard scored 24 points, 14 from the free throw line, and the Magic bounced back from LeBron James’ game-winning shot in Game 2.
James finished with 41 points in the Game 3’s loss but neither him (1-of-8) or his teammates (4-of-18) could buy a shot from 3-point land. The supporting cast for the Cavs continues to get criticized and deservingly so.
The Cavs’ Mo Williams finished Game 3 with a dismal performance from the field, going 5-of-16. In this series, Williams is shooting 32 percent and is just 6-of-24 (25%) from 3-point land. To add insult to his rough play, the first-year All-Star caught a vicious elbow from Orlando’s Anthony Johnson that left him bloody.
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| The Cavs' Mo Williams has had a rough series against the Magic. (AP Images) |
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Not only has Williams been missing, but Cleveland backers are searching for Zydrunas Ilguaskas, who averaging 10.3 PPG while shooting 38 percent (13-of-34) through the first three games. The Cavs were hoping his outside game could open the paint but that hasn’t been the case so far.
Fortunately, the Cavs’ offense was helped with 35 trips to the charity stripe, which made up for a dismal shooting percentage (37%).
While we hate to waste time on conspiracy theories, it’s fair to say that the public and the NBA want to see the Lakers and Cavaliers meet in the NBA Finals regardless of what commissioner David Stern says.
With that being said, the fouls in Game 3 were questionable and you could make a fair argument that the refs were leaning towards the LeBron and the Cavs, especially late in the game. The officials called 58 fouls, which resulted in 86 free throws in 48 minutes. Some of the fouls were real questionable, including a phantom call on Howard’s block on James 3-point attempt in the final minute.
The ‘over/under’ closed at 189 in Game 3 and gamblers backing the ‘under’ surprisingly had to sweat it out. After watching 81 total points scored in the first 24 minutes, ‘under’ players had 108 points to play with in the second-half. The second-half total was 94 at most outfits and the two clubs combined for 107 points in the last two quarters, 45 coming from the free-throw line.
In the six meetings this year, Cleveland is averaging 93.8 PPG and only shooting 42.8 percent during the stretch. Mike Brown’s team is in dire need of offense outside of LeBron yet he hasn’t called on sharpshooters Wally Szczerbiak or Daniel Gibson off the bench. The only other true outside threat on the pine is Sasha Pavlovic, who scored nine points in Game 2’s victory.
Even though the Cavs have lost four of six and failed to cover the number in eight straight meetings against the Magic, they’ve still been tabbed as favorites for Game 4.
The game opened at a pick but Cleveland is now a short one-point road favorite. The total is sitting on 188. The ‘over’ has gone 2-1 in the series.
Not only have the Magic covered eight straight, but they’re 13-1 ATS in the last 14 meetings. Orlando has lost two games at home in the playoffs, both coming in buzzer-beater fashion to Philadelphia and Boston. If you look at the Magic’s six losses this postseason, five have come by four points or less.
One trend favoring Cleveland is how the team responds off a loss. This year, the Cavs have gone 14-2 SU and 13-3 ATS after a defeat and that includes Game 2’s comeback win at home against Orlando in this series.
It’s fair to say that Orlando hasn’t played a complete game in this series yet, which means the top-seeded Cavaliers will have to be perfect here on out, something they haven’t been since the first two rounds.
TNT will provide national coverage of this tip at 8:35 p.m. EDT.
After this battle, the two teams will head to Cleveland for Game 5 on Thursday.
Chris David can be reached at cdavid@vegasinsider.com
