Vegas,last time we made you crawl. Now we put you on a leash and make you bark. Cavs@Hawks! WRITEUP!

The media keeps focusing on the Hawks/Knicks. That's legitimate. They are basically tied for the eighth spot. 

But who has the toughest schedule of the bunch? By far it's the Knicks who play:

Wizards

@Heat

@Raptors

Bulls

@Nets

Raptors

It's easy to see that that is almost the entire Eastern Conference playoffs, all to finish out the Knicks season. And it's not the bottom half, it's the upper middle and top half. 

That is about as bad as it gets excluding any Western Conference match-ups, which there wouldn't be this late in the season anyhow.

So the Knicks have it very rough.

The Hawks? We will get to them soon.

Now to the Cavs. The Cavs sit two games in back of both the Hawks and Knicks. 

They have 7 games remaining which are:

@Hawks

Bobcats

Pistons

@Bucks

Celtics

Nets

Now it is very likely that last game of the season may mean nothing to the Nets. The odds certainly increased given what happened to them vs. the Knicks putting them back further into 5th.

Therefore, the only real test is the Bobcats. And of course, this game at the Hawks.

So the next two games for the Cavs will decide their season where they are 2 games back of the eighth seed with 6 to play. They can gain a full game on the Hawks who are losing anything and everything lately and still have to leapfrog the Knicks too.

Of ALL those games remaining, which game with the Cavs give their maximum effort in in your opinion and leave everything out on the floor?

The answer is obvious. It's this game @ the Hawks. 

If they lose, they fall three games in back of the Hawks and the season is over. All in a single Friday night...

So look at what we have accomplished since the Pistons Bucks bet.

We took team that had nothing to play for and bet on them to win laying half a dozen, and tonight, after correcting ourselves and listening to criticism we are backing a team that will fall 3 back with 5 to play (99% chance you're done for if you lose), that MUST leave it all out on the floor vs. the team currently tied for eighth.

Now that is a NEW AND IMPROVED BET is it not? 

And by the way, don't think all the Cavs players weren't aware of the Knicks demolishing the Nets, a team they must leapfrog and looked like one of the league's best for one night. They understand their performance vs. the Hawks must be equally outstanding to get the job done and inch closer to an eighth spot with a Knicks team that has a mighty large mountain to climb. The Knicks and Cavs had much higher expectations this season and the Cavs increased theirs at the trading deadline. The message is clear. The Knicks are stepping up for that eighth spot. So must the Cavs.

Well we got that terrible tanking with the Bucks last time out. Except the Bucks were playing SUCH a terrible Pistons team (one poster called the game a 'horror show' and I got a laugh out of that as well as the jokes about Charlie V's play), that the cover wasn't achieved by a spider's web strand.

This time we need the same type of team do we not? 

We do. But how do we get that when we have a team that is still tied for the eighth spot (technically the Knicks have it by .2% but the Hawks have less games in the loss column so that is fuzzy math and we'll call it a tie).

This now comes down to one man.

I know you think that's insane and I'm crazy but if you let me explain, you will see why John F. Kennedy will help you win this game.

Despite all the evidence suppression, all the questions, Jack Ruby, the Zapruder film, the number of bullets, the sketchy autopsy, the witness accounts and on and on and on, if you believe John F Kennedy was killed by anyone other than Lee Harvey Oswald, or even believe he had assistance of any kind, thereby rebuking the official government report on the JFK's assassination, you are a 'conspiracy theorist'. 

I don't care where you stand on the shooting. The important thing to discuss here are those last two words.

They are used to discredit you. They are used to shame you. They are used to take your opinion and be a subject of scorn and mockery.

There is a very simple way to make this happen. Find the target (the person who expresses an alternate opinion but what might be a very legitimate opinion on a subject with scant evidence and/or redacted official evidence) and stigmatize them.

Before you know it, many other people, afraid they too will be stigmatized and ultimately ostracized from the in-group, will join in and call you a fool.

Well now back to the game.

I was watching NBA TV this morning and Rick Fox was questioning a reporter from the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and he said "Now some people may say the Hawks may not waaaaant to win these games" (said just as I wrote it). 

After that he smirked and gave a wry smile. The reporter giggled, quickly denied it and called it preposterous and before you know it, the conversation was onto another topic.

What did that whole exchange do? 

So what is the evidence.

1. I watched the Hawks Bulls game and I saw something strange. Mike Budenholzer (the coach, I know you didn't know) watched the Bulls go on runs and called his time-outs 1:30 to 2 minutes late. I thought I was crazy but I kept watching and instead of stopping the bleeding when the Bulls started scoring in chunks, he simply was allowing his team to sink far enough behind the Bulls that they would have much less hope of coming back. 

Intentionally tanking or bad coaching? I don't care. I'm not betting the Hawks if a firing squad ordered me too.

2. The Hawks have some layups on their schedule that could get them into the playoffs.

Celtics

Bucks

Pistons

3 very possible wins for a team allegedly fighting for the playoffs.

How do you eliminate yourself. Lose against the Cavs and potentially drop 1 game behind the Knicks and allow the Cavs a shot to climb over you.

The point: Lose to the gritty Cavs. Make the nose dive look convincing at least.

4. This game is at the Hawks. The Hawks fanbase is consistently rated one of the worst in the NBA with giant bands of empty seats even in playoff games. Lessens that home court advantage and hostile environment significantly. This crowd won't break any noise meters as a 12th man.

5. The Hawks have made the playoffs 7 straight years. Is anyone going to go crazy if this team, with all its injuries, inconsistencies and a first year coach, doesn't?

6. Kyrie Irving is back and looks like he's in very good game form. I said I wanted Waiters and Jack over Kyrie given how good they were playing but apparently, their great play as a backcourt has lit a fire on Kyrie who probably thought he was becoming (just a bit might I say) 'expendable'. Makes a little sense given he sat out during the Cavs biggest wins of the year. He looked great against Orlando in his comeback with 17PTS/8A/6R. This of course is their best player and he is back and we get to put our money on him.

7. I said the 15 point comeback on the Knicks was the Cavs jumping off point. I wasn't wrong. They haven't stopped winning. Given everything I wrote here, are the Hawks the team to derail this Cavs team? I would say hell no.

8. If the Hawks make the playoffs who will they play in the first round. Right now, it's the Heat. They would easily get swept in the bat of eyelash.

Now you have a Hawks team that is hinting it doesn't want to make the playoffs. 

Do you think there is a chance in hell the Cavs might not want to make the playoffs, and if they do,  would there be another team OTHER than Lebron and the Heat that they would want to face???

No way. That is the team they want and if they keep winning, they will.

Finally

There doesn't appear to be one. Strangely, the ESPN Sportcenter App is showing -4 HAWKS!

Folks if the Hawks are laying 4 here hold your bladder because that is an incredible line in favor of the Cavs! Virtually NOTHING I've said above is in that line and the books are simply saying the Hawks are home in a very tight playoff space and will give it there all AND they can lay points to a RED HOT Cavs team. This game goes FAR beyond that as I detailed.

I'm actually afraid to release this write-up before they release a line given the infinitely small chance a linemaker might read this (even at that, LC moved a second quarter line this year, I swear on my life it had to have been him as no second quarter line should ever move a full point). 

I'll say this. If the Hawks are giving ANYTHING, jump all over it. I will have ML action on the Cavs as well if that Sportscenter app is correct. Go all the way to Cavs -1 and then we'll talk because I don't know where this line will end up if it goes crazy but I will be taking it a higher than 1 too (but the Cavs shouldn't be giving more than 1 at the absolute WORST, and that is said just for the benefit of this thread).

Lastly, When you cap, you don't cap a quote. You don't cap a conspiracy theory. You don't cap a team philosophy or future. But you DO take all of that in the aggregate and create an argument to support a side beyond the court of play. Vegas has all the numbers and stats and simulations and algorithms you could ever want. 

We are human beings. This is the human element of capping. We capped the court here and off the court. Let the computers do their thing and you beat them or finding an edge by doing your thing.

Now a challenge: I challenge a single poster of the thousands of views of this thread, to tell me and give me even two paragraphs on why the Hawks are a great side countering my argument.

Don't wait around folks, except for the same old trolls, there wont' be A SINGLE ONE, in all seriousness.

Who do you want your money on. A red hot Cavs team, on the court and ATS with their season on the line or this Hawks team, who, might want to play and very well, might not? 

And now, we put a leash on vegas and make em give us their best WOOF WOOF!