{"id":10289,"date":"2010-11-05T07:15:13","date_gmt":"2010-11-05T12:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=10289"},"modified":"2010-11-05T07:16:42","modified_gmt":"2010-11-05T12:16:42","slug":"miami-heat-at-new-orleans-hornets-free-nba-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/miami-heat-at-new-orleans-hornets-free-nba-picks-10289\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Heat at New Orleans Hornets Free NBA Picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Miami Heat at New Orleans Hornets
\nFriday, 11\/5\/10, 8:00 PM EST
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Miami -6
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Miami -6.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 186
\nCurrent Total: 188<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The Miami Heat have won their last four games by an average of 22.8 pionts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Miami has literally dominated opponents since its opening night loss to the Boston Celtics and tallied a 129-97 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves last time out.\u00a0 The Heat\u2019s 4-1 start matches the best in franchise history through five games and they sit at this record for the second consecutive season.\u00a0 \u201cAll of our guys have the right thing in mind,\u201d said head coach Erik Spoelstra.\u00a0 \u201cThey\u2019re allowing us to use them as weapons, when we need them, to help the team win.\u201d\u00a0 Miami has won three consecutive games by at least 20 points for the first time since March 1998.\u00a0 Spoelstra stressed defense during the offseason and the club has delivered by giving up just 420 points (84.0 points per game) through the first five games of the season.\u00a0 That number represents the second fewest points the franchise has allowed during that same period of any season.\u00a0 The team is 6-1 ATS as a road favorite of 6.5 to 9 points and the NBA lines page has them right there.<\/p>\n

The Heat have won their last four games by an average of 22.8 points and are still not running at an optimum level.\u00a0 Forward Chris Bosh is scoring 11 fewer points and grabbing just 6.4 rebounds per game thus far, following a 2009-10 campaign that saw him post a career-best 24.0 points and 10.8 rebounds.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t care about numbers,\u201d Bosh stated.\u00a0 \u201cThe only number I care about is winning.\u201d\u00a0 Miami and New Orleans will meet two times this season and the clubs split last year\u2019s series, 1-1, with each team winning on their home courts.\u00a0 An impressive stat to keep track of is the Heat\u2019s defense currently holding the opposing starting lineup to an average of 36.5 points per game over the current winning streak.<\/p>\n

New Orleans has tied the franchise record for their longest undefeated start by winning the first four games of the season and is coming off a 107-99 road win over Houston.\u00a0 The Hornets aggressiveness was the different by getting to the foul line 42 times in comparison to the Rockets\u2019 18 free throw attempts.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve done some good stuff, but it\u2019s early in the season,\u201d said first-year head coach Monty Williams.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s good to start 4-0, but with 78 more games, we\u2019re not going to be a team that allows our record to dictate how we play.\u201d\u00a0 The hot start is even more impressive due to each victory coming against a team with a winning record last season.\u00a0 New Orleans is 4-0 ATS this season and 36-42 ATS as an underdog.<\/p>\n

The Hornets are still led by star point guard Chris Paul, who is averaging 21.3 points and nine assists.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re a defensive team, we\u2019re still trying to find our identity,\u201d said Paul.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re no where near where we want to be.\u201d\u00a0 The starting lineup has received early help from the bench in 2010-11, with the role players outscoring its opponent\u2019s bench in three of the first four games this season, averaging 32.5 points compared to 27.5.\u00a0 New Orleans is also taking care of the ball and giving up just 12.8 points off turnovers, which ranks second in the league.<\/p>\n

Bettors will notice that the Heat are 10-2 ATS in their last 12 Friday contests, while the Hornets are 6-0 ATS in their last six games dating back to last season.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t even think about playing Friday\u2019s games until you check out the NBA handicappers at Maddux Sports, who are enjoying an incredible 12-1 run!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Miami Heat at New Orleans Hornets Friday, 11\/5\/10, 8:00 PM EST Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Miami -6 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Miami -6.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 186 Current Total: 188 Miami has literally dominated opponents since its opening night loss to the Boston Celtics and tallied a 129-97 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves last time out.\u00a0 The Heat\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":9328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[692,837,3704,707,3705,836],"class_list":["post-10289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-chris-bosh","tag-chris-paul","tag-erik-spoelstra","tag-miami-heat","tag-monty-williams","tag-new-orleans-hornets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10290,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10289\/revisions\/10290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}