Over\/Under<\/strong>: 192 <\/p>\nWith all due respect to the Phoenix Suns and the Golden State Warriors, there is only one real game on the docket Thursday night, and it\u2019s not west of the Mississippi. <\/p>\n
Extra security will be on hand in Cleveland when what\u2019s left of the Cavaliers do their best to stick it to LeBron and the Big Two and a Half in LBJ\u2019s first game since bailing out of the Rust Belt. If there is a God in heaven the Cavs, who to be truthful are overachieving just a bit, can find a way to stick it to the Heat.<\/p>\n
If that happens, fans from coast to coast would no doubt applaud louder than Cleveland partisans\u00a0will boo when James is introduced.<\/p>\n
James\u2019s return to Cleveland comes as the Heat are trying to beat back rumors coming at them from all angles. Bosh doesn\u2019t like to practice, Wade says coach Erik Spoelstra is be part of the problem, James digs his shoulder into the coach during a time-out. ![\"Online](\"http:\/\/affiliates.commissionaccount.com\/processing\/impressions.asp?btag=a_3953b_41\")
<\/p>\n
Pat Riley is giving Spoelstra until the new year to straighten things out or he\u2019ll can the kid and take over. Pick your favorite rumor.<\/p>\n
Whether Riley wants to risk his unblemished coaching reputation trying to breathe some life into a group of narcissists who so far have resisted any type of coaching is unlikely, but it may be a case of be careful what you ask for \u2013 Riles is famous for 3-hour, full-pads, knock-down practices which probably won\u2019t sit well with three guys whose idea of a fun day is a few hours at the pool, game, then hit South Beach.<\/p>\n
One thing is clear \u2013 the Heat\u2019s offense is not what it was cracked up to be. James and Wade are ticked that Spoelstra insists on running pick-and-rolls, preferring street ball with four players along the back line and one player with the ball on top of the key.<\/p>\n
Problem is, only one player has the ball when teams isolate, and that means most of the time Wade and Bosh will be handsomely paid extras while James creates.<\/p>\n
Spoelstra knows that type of ball might get him a few extra wins in the regular season and might even get James off his back, but it had been and will continue to be death in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Best bet:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re sure how this is going to play out in Cleveland, good for you. The best guess here is that the Heat, who have had serious motivational problems, will get up for this one and win big, even though they played (and won big) in Detroit Wednesday night. <\/p>\n
The fans will boo and the Cavs will play with some intensity, but as they showed against Boston on Tuesday night, Cleveland just doesn\u2019t have the talent to hang with Miami on those occasions when the Heat feel the need to validfate themselves. Cleveland -4.5. <\/p>\n
If you want a parlay, Phoenix +2.5 in the nightcap.<\/p>\n
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<\/strong>
\nLawrence Paul is a regular contributor to the Cappers Picks Blog, and is a free-lance gambling and travel expert from Massachusetts.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Our experts weigh in with this week\u2019s best Thursday night hoops NBA picks for gambling on all the action…tonight on the hardwood we get the Miami Heat vs. Cleveland Cavaliers…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":23635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4045,5595,23765,23766,23767,40168,40169,40170,40171,23761,8665,20992,20991,9273,9921,22581,37632,37631],"class_list":["post-30189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-free-nba-picks","tag-free-nba-predictions","tag-heat-cavaliers-odds","tag-heat-cavaliers-picks","tag-heat-vs-cavaliers","tag-heat-vs-cavaliers-lines","tag-heat-vs-cavaliers-odds","tag-heat-vs-cavaliers-predictions","tag-miami-cleveland-picks","tag-miami-heat-vs-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-nba-on-tnt","tag-nba-parlay-betting","tag-nba-parlay-picks","tag-nba-selections","tag-online-nba-predictions","tag-thursday-nba-picks","tag-thursday-night-nba-betting","tag-tnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30189"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107196,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30189\/revisions\/107196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}