Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love dunks against the Chicago Bulls during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Chicago, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2020. Nam Y. Huh | Associated Press
NBA

NBA Thursday bet of the day: Wizards at Cavaliers — Can Kevin Love lead Cleveland to a much-needed win?

Greg Frank

3-0 Wednesday, 72-75-1 overall.

Wizards (+2.5) @ Cavaliers (231)

Pick: Cavaliers -2.5

Just because this is the only game out of the three in the NBA that isn’t on national television tonight doesn’t mean you can’t bet on it. Our favorite side in the association is Cleveland laying a short number at home against Washington. The Wizards played with the Heat for 48 minutes and then some last night as Miami needed overtime to put the game away. Normally a team as bad as the Wizards would be ripe to bet against on a tail end of a back-to-back set of road games. When the front end happens to be an overtime game against a team as good as the Heat, then this angle becomes even more attractive. The Wizards just had an opportunity to steal one against the team currently in second place in the Eastern Conference. They didn’t get it done and for a team that’s done plenty of losing so far in 2019-2020, we’re expecting them to be a little dejected and go through the motions against Cleveland. The Cavs aren’t any good either, but just got crushed by 20 points at home by the Knicks on Monday. With two days to sit on it and another bad team coming to Cleveland, we’re guessing the Cavaliers are the ones more motivated tonight. Betting games like this is all about betting on which team is less likely to get embarrassed. The Wizards run out of gas and the Cavs play hard the whole way avoiding another bad loss at home.

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