NBA Opening Night Picks

Tomorrow night is the opening night of the NBA season. The Miami Heat will host the Boston Celtics at 8:00 and the Dallas Mavericks will visit the Los Angeles Lakers at 10:30. These are four of the favorites to make a run at the NBA World Championship this season. The Washington Wizards will also play the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday. Here are odds on those games:

Bookmaker has the Wizards +5.5 -110. The Cavaliers are -5.5 -110. Over/under is 190. The Wizards are starting the season without starting point guard John Wall due to injury. The Cavs have last season’s Rookie of the Year, Kyrie Irving starting at the point guard position. Look for Cleveland to win. But will they cover the spread? We think so. Take the Cavs -5.5.

The Celtics are +6 -110 and the Heat is -6 -110. Over/under is 185.  The Celtics bring a formidable and much younger team to Miami than they’ve had in recent seasons. They still have Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, but with star point guard Rajon Rondo, and talented rookies such as Fab Melo, Jared Sullinger and Kris Joseph, this Celtics team is no longer old. Throw is some veteran newcomers such as Jason Terry and Courtney Lee, and they will give the Heat some competition in the East.

Miami didn’t exactly stand pat with their NBA World Championship team from a year ago either. They still have the “Big Three” in Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, but now have added Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis to the mix. But, much like we saw when the New York Giants lost to the Dallas Cowboys at home when they got their Super Bowl rings, the focus for the Heat may be more on the pre-game than the game itself. We’ll take the Celtics +6.

There are no odds on the Mavericks Lakers game.