The Charlotte Bobcats will head to Cleveland to take on Shaq, LeBron and the Cavs on Sunday night.  Both teams played and won on the road last night, with the Bobcats beating Miami and the Cavs topping the New Jersey Nets.  While the straight up outcome of this game may be something of a foregone conclusion, its actually a very intriguing matchup from a NBA basketball betting standpoint.

CHARLOTTE BOBCATS VS. CLEVELAND CAVALIERS

Like many young NBA teams, the Bobcats are a team that has performed well at home and struggled on the road.  Last night’s win at Miami was only their second away victory of the season, “improving” their record to 2-14 SU.  At home, however, the Bobcats are no joke with an 11-4 mark.  Despite their struggles to win games away from home, its not like the Bobcats have been rolling over for their opponents.  Charlotte is now 10-6 ATS away from home and 13-8 ATS as an underdog.  They’ve also played tough against the NBA Central this year, with a 7-2 ATS mark.  The Bobcats have covered 9 of their last 12 games overall.

Cleveland may be 13-2 SU at home, but they’re only 5-10 against the spread.  They have covered five of their 7 straight SU victories, but before that had only covered twice in their past 8 games.  That’s the deal with a ‘public’ team like Cleveland–they’re always going to be overvalued against the pointspread and you’ll pay a ‘premium’ of playing them.  On the other hand, if you bet against them you’re getting additional line value.  The Cavs have won 10 straight at home against Charlotte, but the Bobcats have covered in six of those games.  After a tough stretch of games where Cleveland has performed well, they could be due for something of a letdown here similar to Saturday’s 8 point win over lowly New Jersey.  Cleveland will get the outright win, but we like the Bobcats to keep it close and cash our ticket against the spread.

PLAY CHARLOTTE +10′ OVER CLEVELAND