{"id":12676,"date":"2011-01-22T08:35:51","date_gmt":"2011-01-22T13:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=12676"},"modified":"2011-01-22T08:35:51","modified_gmt":"2011-01-22T13:35:51","slug":"south-beach-betting-toronto-raptors-at-miami-heat-eastern-conference-picks-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/south-beach-betting-toronto-raptors-at-miami-heat-eastern-conference-picks-predictions-12676\/","title":{"rendered":"South Beach Betting: Toronto Raptors at Miami Heat Eastern Conference Picks & Predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toronto Raptors at Miami Heat
\nSaturday, 1\/22\/11, 7:30 PM EDT
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Miami -12.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Miami -13
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 201
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 200.5<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Miami Heat are double-digit home favorites and looking to snap a four-game losing streak when facing Toronto Saturday night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Toronto has officially matched a season high with six straight losses after dropping a 112-72 contest in Orlando last night and has fallen short in its last five road contests.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re playing bad,\u201d said center Andrea Bargnani.\u00a0 \u201cAfter every game it seems like we played worse.\u00a0 We have to find a way to stop this and play better.\u201d\u00a0 The Raptors are really struggling and many NBA experts believe that injuries have been the key factor, playing without Leandro Barbosa, Sonny Weems and Reggie Evans.\u00a0 The team is also suiting up numerous players with nagging injuries, including Bargnani, Jerryd Bayless, Jose Calderon, Linas Kleiza and Amir Johnson.\u00a0 Toronto is 27-12 ATS as a road underdog of 12.5 or more points and is currently over that number on the NBA lines page for Saturday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

The Raptors lost 109-100 at Miami on November 13, 2010, which was the third straight loss in the series at tonight\u2019s venue.\u00a0 Toronto hasn\u2019t lost seven game in a row since March 13, 2009.\u00a0 The team\u2019s 40-point loss to Orlando last night equaled the worst beating in franchise history, with the first instance coming during the franchise\u2019s inaugural 1995-96 season.\u00a0 Calderon must step up his game at the point in order for this team to return to the win column, as he\u2019s been held scoreless in two of the last three games, but still has managed to have at least nine assists in 13 of 15 games.<\/p>\n

Miami has had three days off to stew over a four-game losing streak and the team\u2019s record is now 30-13 overall, including a 15-5 home mark.\u00a0 \u201cWhen you don\u2019t understand why you\u2019re losing, now you\u2019re in trouble,\u201d said guard Dwyane Wade.\u00a0 \u201cWe understand why.\u00a0 This is about us correcting it.\u00a0 That\u2019s what the good teams have done.\u201d\u00a0 Despite the recent struggles, the Heat still managed to reel off 21 wins in a 22-game span before the recent slide and injuries to all members of the Big Three have played a part.\u00a0 LeBron James and Wade are both expected in the lineup tonight, but Chris Bosh has been listed as out for a second straight game.\u00a0 Miami is 6-13 ATS at home on the year.<\/p>\n

The Heat and Raptors will be meeting for the second of four match-ups this season, with the two clubs splitting last season\u2019s series, 2-2, with each team winning on their home courts.\u00a0 Miami is 34-21 all-time versus Toronto in the regular season and is 21-8 in games played in South Beach.\u00a0 Offensively, the team managed to score at least 90 points in 20 consecutive games until suffering a 93-89 overtime loss to Atlanta last time out.<\/p>\n

Bettors will be interested in backing the Raptors due to their 4-1 ATS mark on zero days rest, while the Heat are 1-5 ATS as a home favorite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto Raptors at Miami Heat Saturday, 1\/22\/11, 7:30 PM EDT Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Miami -12.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Miami -13 Opening Total:\u00a0 201 Current Total:\u00a0 200.5 Toronto has officially matched a season high with six straight losses after dropping a 112-72 contest in Orlando last night and has fallen short in its last five road […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":9327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[692,2896,3622,66,707,693],"class_list":["post-12676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-chris-bosh","tag-dwyane-wade","tag-eastern-conference","tag-lebron-james","tag-miami-heat","tag-toronto-raptors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12676","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=12676"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12678,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12676\/revisions\/12678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}