{"id":10494,"date":"2010-11-11T09:53:30","date_gmt":"2010-11-11T14:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=10494"},"modified":"2010-11-11T09:53:30","modified_gmt":"2010-11-11T14:53:30","slug":"boston-celtics-vs-miami-heat-nba-betting-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/boston-celtics-vs-miami-heat-nba-betting-predictions-10494\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston Celtics vs Miami Heat NBA Betting Predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boston Celtics at Miami Heat
\nThursday, 11\/11\/10, 8:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 TNT
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Miami -6.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Miami -6.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 183.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 184.5<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra is focused on gaining revenge against the Celtics tonight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Boston comes into this contest after suffering a 89-87 road loss to the Dallas Mavericks in a game that saw them rally from a 14-point deficit in its fifth game in seven nights.\u00a0 \u201cWe pretty much got the shotes we wanted,\u201d said head coach Doc Rivers.\u00a0 \u201cThey just didn\u2019t go in.\u00a0 Everything was short-armed and short-rimmed.\u201d\u00a0 The Celtics offense has been better this season at times, scoring 100 points or more four times this season, garnering a victory in each of those games.\u00a0 It\u2019s highly unlikely that either team reaches that mark tonight with two outstanding defenses, plus the first meeting producing 168 points combined.\u00a0 Forward Paul Pierce leads the team in scoring 19.6 points per game and point guard Rajon Rondo is the engine in dishing out 14.8 assists per contest.\u00a0 The team is 3-0 ATS as an underdog and the NBA lines page confirms this.<\/p>\n

The Celtics are 2-2 overall on the road and an even 1-1 versus the Eastern Conference in those games.\u00a0 Boston picked up a 3-0 series sweep during the 2009-10 season and was impressive in handing the Heat a 88-80 loss on the season\u2019s opening night at home.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s just going to take time,\u201d said Rivers of Miami\u2019s development as a team.\u00a0 \u201cThey\u2019re going to have great nights and then they\u2019re going to have nights where they struggle.\u201d\u00a0 A big factor in winning the first meeting this year was holding the Heat to just nine points in the first quarter and 30 points during the first half.<\/p>\n

Miami\u2019s record dropped to 5-3 on the season due to a disappointing 116-114 overtime loss at home to Utah in a game they led by 22 points in the second quarter.\u00a0 \u201cWe still have a long way to go,\u201d said LeBron James.\u00a0 The former Cavaliers star tallied his first triple-double as a member of the Heat in the loss and is averaging 20.6 points, 5.5 rebounds and 8.6 assists on the season.\u00a0 Guard Dwyane Wade has led the team in scoring the past four games, including a 39-point performance last time out, but knows this isn\u2019t a perfect unit early in the year.\u00a0 \u201cIt hurts.\u00a0 It hurts to take time.\u00a0 No want wants to go through the process,\u201d he commented.\u00a0 Miami is 4-4 ATS on the year and 28-14 ATS after allowing 105 or more points.<\/p>\n

The Heat will be tested in a big way tonight and some have suggested that a hangover from the Utah loss may trickle into this contest.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a very disappointing loss and it\u2019s a lesson hopefully we\u2019ll learn from this game,\u201d said head coach Eric Spoelstra.\u00a0 \u201cTeams are too good in this league.\u00a0 This is something our guys will not take lightly.\u201d\u00a0 Miami may come out flat in the first half in games this season, but that certainly hasn\u2019t been the case in the third quarter.\u00a0 The team has won the frame in seven of eight games and outscored opponents by a 221-146 margin.<\/p>\n

Bettors will have an interested in playing the Celtics due to their 6-0 ATS mark with two days off, while the Heat are 8-3-1 ATS in their last 12 games as a favorite of 5.0 to 10.5 points.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on NBA expert picks from your friends at Maddux Sports for all of tonight\u2019s games!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boston Celtics at Miami Heat Thursday, 11\/11\/10, 8:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 TNT Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Miami -6.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Miami -6.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 183.5 Current Total:\u00a0 184.5 Boston comes into this contest after suffering a 89-87 road loss to the Dallas Mavericks in a game that saw them rally from a 14-point deficit in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":9349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[120,3686,2896,3622,3818,66,707],"class_list":["post-10494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-boston-celtics","tag-doc-rivers","tag-dwyane-wade","tag-eastern-conference","tag-eric-spoelstra","tag-lebron-james","tag-miami-heat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10494","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=10494"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10495,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10494\/revisions\/10495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}