The comparisons between LeBron James and Michael Jordan had jet fuel thrown on the fire this week when James knocked down a Jordan-esque jumper to give his Cleveland Cavaliers a Game 4 victory against the Chicago Bulls Sunday night.
James followed that buzzer beater with a dominating performance in Game 5 Tuesday, leading the Cavs to another win with 38 points, 12 rebounds and six assists and putting Cleveland just one win away from a berth in the Eastern Conference finals.
The Bulls are on the ropes heading into Game 6 Thursday, opening as 1.5-point home underdogs before moving to -1.5. And when it comes to putting opponents away, LeBron holds the edge over MJ – at least as far as basketball bettors are concerned.
In close-out playoff games (with three wins in the series), LeBron James’ teams are a collective 22-8 SU with a 20-9-1 ATS record in those contests, covering 69 percent of the time. Jordan, whose ATS stats we have only going as far back as 1990, has led those Chicago teams to a 25-7 SU mark in close-out games but has split when it comes to covering the spread, with a 16-16 ATS record in those outings.
In his first go-around with Cleveland, James-led Cavaliers teams were 8-5 SU and 8-4-1 ATS in close-out games (67 percent). When LeBron jumped ship to South Beach, his Miami Heat squads boasted a 13-3 SU and 11-5 ATS mark (69 percent) when holding three wins in a playoff series. And this postseason, in his second run with the Cavs, LeBron scored 27 points in a 101-93 victory to sweep the Boston Celtics, covering as 6.5-point chalk in Game 4 of that opening-round series.
When it comes to individual performance, James has pretty much been on par with his career playoff scoring average (28.0 ppg) in close-out opportunities. He’s averaged 28.16 points per game in those situations (28.57 ppg with Cavs/27.81 ppg with Heat) while Jordan averaged 32.4 points in close-out games, a tick lower than his career playoff average of 33.4 points per game.
LeBron has been a substantially better wager in close-out games when contrasted against his teams’ overall postseason ATS success. He went 42-19 SU and 43-27-1 ATS (61 percent) in his first tenure with Cleveland, followed by a 43-21 SU and 38-25-1 ATS (60 percent) marks with Miami. This postseason, the Cavaliers head into Thursday at 7-2 SU and just 4-5 ATS – including a 1-4 ATS record versus Chicago.
While “King James” may be the bigger breadwinner when compared to Jordan in close-out games, both stars have leaned toward the Under when having on opponent on the edge of elimination.
James owns a 13-17 Over/Under record (14-10 O/U with Cavs/9-7 with Heat) in close-outs while Jordan finished with a 13-19 Over/Under mark in those situations between 1990 and 1998.
Oddsmakers currently have Cleveland set as a -575 series favorite (Chicago +430) heading to the United Center Thursday. The Cavaliers are -220 front runners to win the Eastern Conference and priced at +300 to win the NBA Championship, behind the Golden State Warriors at -120.
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