darrell,

Four star this afternoon that I like very much...

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Good luck , darrell!

Game: Detroit at Cleveland (5:05 PM Eastern)
Pick: 4 stars on Cleveland +4.5

We have short memories, don't we. Well, I remember the first round. In that round, Detroit handed Milwaukee two crushing defeats to open the series. They won at home 92-74 and 109-98. They then promptly went to Milwaukee and lost by 20 points as a 6.5 point favorite. Is this situation unique to 2006? No! Last year in the first round, Detroit played Philadelphia. They won the first two games at home by 21 and 15 repectively. Then they went to Philly as 3.5 road favorites and lost the game outright 104-115. Two seasons ago in the second round series against Indiana, the Pistons won the first two games by 22 and 18 and lost the third game in New Jersey by 18 points. There's a pattern here with Detroit and we have a very similar situation here. Detroit embarrassed Cleveland in game one 113-86. They won game two by 6 points but they were in control for the whole game. They are feeling high-and-mighty again and now go on the road as a favorite to face a team in dire need of a win. Will Cleveland win by 20? No they won't. But, they will fight tooth and nail in front of the friendly crowd and do everything they possible can to avoid going down 0-3. Cleveland owns a 8-6 ATS mark against Detroit over the past three seasons including 4-2 here at home. We saw Detroit's boredom rear its head in Game two. They are still bored. Cleveland gets the ATS win here and maybe the straight-up win.