Eastern Conference:
5. 
Toronto Raptors
This team may be the East team of the second half of the season, not
only because they will only play against teams from the West for eight times,
but also the team with TJ Ford is finally ready to compete. There is no other
team in the league, who can say they have two great PG like Toronto, who will
use them to have a good ball movement for the whole 48 minutes of the game.
They are 28-23 O/U until now, but this record is even more solid in away
matches, where they are 16-9 O/U. The team has a good chance to reach the Top 3
on their conference.
4. 
Cleveland Cavaliers
The team can be confused with Lebron, as in this season more than
anyone, he has been the decisive player of the team, leading the NBA in
scoring, but also leading the league in scoring in the 4th quarter. And this
fact is creating problems to the bettor when the team is billed as a favorite.
The Cavs are 8-16 ATS at home and 5-12 ATS as home favorites. When the bookies
give extra points to the Cavs, the team wins the game outright, but they can't
cover the spread. However, when the team plays on the road they are 12-9 ATS.
Right now the Cavs have a lot of injured players, so this stop was great to the
team. They have the necessary conditions to get the 3rd or the 4th place in the
conference standings at the end of the regular season.
3. 
Orlando Magic
No other team played so well on the road like Orlando, who is 20-9 ATS
in away games and 10-4 ATS as an away dog. The team until the end of the
regular season will have 16 of their last 28 games at home and that will be a
challenge for them, as they will need to get the habit of winning at home, as
they will be a top seed in the East and if they don't start winning almost
every home game, this will be fatal for them in the playoffs. The frontcourt of
Orlando is the most powerful in the East, with Howard and Turkoglu, who is
having a career season. But Howard will need to improve his FT %'s, as he is
shooting better field goals than free throws, something unacceptable for his
level. If he doesn't get better on this stat, Orlando will have problems, as
their opponents will start to foul Howard to make him shoot from the free throw
line.
2. 
Detroit Pistons
This team of Detroit is clearly having two different faces this season,
as the under is 17-7 on their home games, but on away games the over is 14-5!
That's weird, but something which won't be strange is that the team continues
to win games and cover very high spreads. Detroit went 12-4 ATS when they were
favored by more than 8 points in the first half of the season. But the tendency
will be for these records to get worse, as they are a veteran team and they
will need to save energies to the playoffs. Clearly a team to avoid large
spreads in the last weeks of the regular season.
1. 
Boston Celtics
There is a lot of things which can be said about this team, but nobody
can deny they are having an amazing regular season, with a 41-9 record. They
have even become more amazing when some experts said that the team didn't have
an hard schedule and they replied with a 16-0 record against teams from the
West. What's also curious is that they are 11-1 against teams of their
division, which is the same to say that the other eight defeats were against
teams of just two divisions. The bettor must love Boston as a dog, as they are
6-0 ATS until now. Even without Garnett, Boston is being extremely competitive,
defeating San Antonio and Dallas, but in the playoff he will be really
necessary. The question about of the backup for the PG position remains and a
move is expected in this area before the deadline expires.