A pair of national TV battles for Thursday night on TNT. Many felt the early game between Cleveland and Miami would be a preview of the Eastern Conference finals, but both squads have under performed this season and continue to battle injuries.

The late game pits two contenders in the Western Conference and two of the best teams in the league as the Suns look to rebound from a rare loss and start a new winning streak against a Spurs squad that stands 10-2 SU in the past twelve head-to-head meetings.

CLEVELAND at MIAMI (-5½, 193½) (TNT)

Cleveland’s LeBron James continues to battle a toe injury and is questionable for tonight’s game. James has missed two of the past three games and surprisingly the Cavaliers are 2-0 SU without him and 0-1 SU with him.

The results are a bit misleading as the loss came against the red-hot Phoenix Suns, while the wins came against Philadelphia and Golden State. LeBron leads the team in scoring (27.2 ppg), assists (6.0 apg), and steals (1.6 spg). Overall, Cleveland is 8-2 SU without James the past few seasons, but they will be tested tonight at Miami as the home team is 10-1 SU recently in this series.

Miami is also battling injuries as Shaquille O’Neal is questionable tonight as he continues to recover from a strained calf muscle. Shaq returned for limited action last week in a pair of road losses at Indiana and New York, but played only 14 and 15 minutes in each game. O’Neal has since missed the past two games in which the Heat went 1-1 SU (2-0 ATS). Overall, Shaq is second on the team in scoring (12.0 ppg) and rebounding (6.5 rpg) this season.

SAN ANTONIO at PHOENIX (-6 ½, 208½) (TNT)

Phoenix is coming off a rare loss at Minnesota on Tuesday that snapped the Suns’ 17-game winning streak. Phoenix is still an incredible 35-4 SU over their past thirty-nine games since starting the season 1-5 SU. In fact, Phoenix has only lost twice in regulation time in their past 39 games.

The Suns have struggled in this head-to-head series, going just 2-10 SU in the past twelve meetings versus the Spurs, including a 111-106 overtime loss at San Antonio on November 8th. Phoenix blew a 9-point lead in that game, including a 5-point edge heading into the fourth quarter.

Raja Bell and Steve Nash led the way with 20 points apiece, but the Suns struggled to stop the Spurs’ big men as Tim Duncan had 26 points and 14 rebounds while center Fabricio Oberto had a season-high 22 points and 10 rebounds. It was a shocking performance by Oberto who has only scored more than six points once in his past 13 games.

Steve Merril
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