NBA Picks: LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers visit the Washington Wizards on Friday night in a game that can be seen on ESPN. The Cavaliers started slowly this season but they are rounding into form while the Wizards won seven of their first nine games to start the season. This should be an entertaining contest in the first of two ESPN games on Friday night. Let’s look at the game and NBA predictions.
Cleveland Cavaliers 3-2 SU, 2-3 ATS on the Road
The Cavaliers are playing a weird one-game road trip as they were home for three games before this game on Friday and then they have a five game home-stand after this game. The Cavs have been overvalued all season and even though they are 3-2 straight up in road games they are just 2-3 against the spread. The Cavaliers have been scoring a ton of points as they were averaging 108 points per game which was second in the league. The defense has not been good as they are allowing about 104 points per game. The team went over twice, under twice with one push in their first five road games.
How Good are the Wizards?
When you look at Washington’s record you will notice a lot of wins but if you look closely you’ll see the team really hasn’t played a tough schedule. They had Dallas earlier this week which was just their third tough game of the season.
They had yet to beat a good team this season before the game against Dallas. They lost to Miami and Toronto in their only other games against winning teams. The Wizards are averaging about 99 points per game while allowing about 96 per contest. The strange part is that the team went over in six of their first nine games.
Series Notes
Keep in mind that the trends in this series were when the Cavaliers didn’t have LeBron James or Kevin Love. The Cavaliers had still won six of the last ten meetings and covered 7 of the last 10. The teams split their four meetings last season with the road team winning each time. Washington won 96-83 and 98-91 in Cleveland while the Cavaliers won 115-113 and 103-96 in Washington. The teams have split their last ten meetings in Washington with the last two going over the total.
NBA Predictions
Until the Wizards prove they can beat good teams it is hard to take them. We’ll go with the Cavaliers to win this game on Friday night.
