Toronto Raptors -4.0
Cavs/Raps OVER 191.5
I noticed that home games have been huge this year and they are getting real good support from the home crowd. Cavaliers have been performing well as of late but the same can be said for the Raptors. They've played the top tier teams so far and managed themselves well keeping up and at some point even controlling the game itself. Cavaliers have been alive thanks to their rookie Kyrie and Jamison who's slowly becoming relevant again. Coach Scott is also looking to shoot more 3s (currently ranked 6th in the league in 3P%). Anyway, I'm playing the Raptors here given their success against the Cavaliers from last season. They are somewhere near the 50% mark in FG% against them (winning 3 of 4 matchups) and has been one of the better shooting team in the league (ranked 4th in FG%). I see this game turning into a shootout with the Raptors really trying to play defense. I guess that explains why the total is 10 points lower than last season's average (201).
Lean: Orlando Magic -13.0
You know you gotta look ahead to Orlando's next game right after a loss especially if they were defeated by one of the weaker teams in the league. Orlando still shoots a lot of threes and Washington is one of those teams they have a good success with. Orlando also averages a winning margin of 18.25 against them from last season's head-to-head. Without much changes on both teams, I think we can assume that we'll see somewhat a similar result from here. The reason why I put this down as a lean is because I still have no confidence with this season's Orlando Magic in blowing up teams.
Lean: Charlotte Bobcats +11.5
I have yet to give up on my Cats. The reason for this play is my Cats have played well against the Knicks and has played them close in last season's head-to-head. Amare is set to return to in this game but I still see a lot of value here for a Bobcats' cover. Knicks are yet to be impressive this season and I've been seeing random guys in their roster fielded. I guess they still have yet to come up with a solid rotation. I have yet to see them take advantage of their strong front court and usually turn games to a shoot out. Cats will definitely love a game like this having good run last season when they play small and fast ball.
CHI/DET UNDER 182.5
Pistons looked good in their last 2 games(wins) and Lawrence Frank is making them play defense again (which is great!). I see a slow paced game here with both teams giving each other a hard time scoring. Detroit have the height and scrappiness to play good defense against the Bulls (and them playing back-to-back after a tiring game against the Hawks helps!). Lawrence Frank isn't really known for drawing up great offense but defense (evident in Detroit barely making it past 90 points in 5 games they played) and it would be interesting to see him go up against another defensive coach.
BOL.