Cavs try to keep rolling in bout with slumping Bulls

Basketball Betting Lines

03/19/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Cavaliers have already locked up their second straight Central Division title and are trying to nail down the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference in back-to-back seasons. Tonight they'll get started with a road bout against the division-foe Chicago Bulls at the United Center.

The Cavaliers are 5 1/2 games ahead of Orlando for the top seed in the conference and have ripped off five straight victories, including Wednesday's 99-94 triumph versus the Central-rival Indiana Pacers at Quicken Loans Arena. NBA leading scorer LeBron James nearly had his second straight triple-double, finishing with 32 points, nine rebounds and nine assists, while Antawn Jamison added 17 points and nine rebounds in Cleveland's 24th win in 28 tries.

"Any time you can put a banner up for this franchise, it's great," said James, who surpassed Magic Johnson to become only the third player in league history to have 49 or more games with 30-plus points, eight-plus rebounds and eight- plus assists since the 1976-77 merger. "It's a great tribute to the fans, this organization, the players and the coaching staff and everyone around it."

James is only three points shy of 15,000 for his career and at 25 years, 79 days old, should become the youngest player in the NBA to reach that mark. (Kobe Bryant - 27 years, 136 days).

J.J. Hickson and Anderson Varejao each had 13 points in the victory.

Owners of the best record in the NBA, the Cavs are 15-5 in their last 20 road tilts and own a 24-11 mark away from "The Q" this season.

Chicago has seen better days and will try to stop a nine-game losing streak tonight against arguably the best team in the NBA. Its current slide has made the playoffs seem almost unreachable, but surprisingly the Bulls are just 2 1/2 games behind Toronto for the eighth and final postseason spot in the East.

In the finale of a winless four-game road trip on Wednesday -- a 113-106 loss at Dallas -- Acie Law scored a career-best 22 points for the Bulls, who haven't won since February 26 at home against Portland. This is the longest losing streak for Chicago since opening the 2004-05 campaign with an 0-9 record.

"We've got to tighten up some things defensively," Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro said. "That's how we won early in the season. We can't control the paint and we're not controlling penetration as well as we'd like. We just have to keep trying to find ways to improve in a lot of areas, and it makes it tough when half your team is new."

The Bulls played without their top three scorers on Wednesday, as Derrick Rose (sprained left wrist), Luol Deng (strained calf) and Joakim Noah (left foot) all missed the game. Rose is expected to miss Friday's game -- his fourth straight -- while Deng and Noah are out indefinitely.

Rose leads the team in scoring (20.4 ppg) and assists (5.7), and is averaging 23.6 points, 5.6 assists and 2.5 rebounds over his last eight contests.

The Bulls have lost four straight at home and are 19-13 in the Windy City this season.

The 2009-10 season series between the Cavaliers and Bulls is tied at a game apiece. These two teams have split the past eight matchups held at the United Center.

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(September 14) – Week one of NFL action saw three teams go scoreless for the first time since 1977.  Another four were unable to get a touchdown and almost half of the underdogs covered the spread. Those three teams saved bettors at MySportsbook.com from losing out completely, thanks to the company’s unique NFL Shutout Rule -- which ensures that if the team you backed goes scoreless, your wager is refunded.

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