{"id":12823,"date":"2011-01-27T12:28:54","date_gmt":"2011-01-27T17:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=12823"},"modified":"2011-01-27T12:28:54","modified_gmt":"2011-01-27T17:28:54","slug":"pro-basketball-betting-miami-heat-at-new-york-knicks-expert-picks-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/pro-basketball-betting-miami-heat-at-new-york-knicks-expert-picks-predictions-12823\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro Basketball Betting: Miami Heat at New York Knicks Expert Picks & Predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Miami Heat at New York Knicks
\nThursday, 1\/27\/10, 8:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 TNT
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Miami -3
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Miami -3.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 208
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 211.5<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The New York Knicks look to enter the win column against the Miami Heat tonight at Madison Square Garden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Miami will look to win its eighth straight game over New York tonight when facing off at Madison Square Garden with one of the \u201cBig Three\u201d members being sidelines indefinitely.\u00a0 The Heat\u2019s headline-making trio haven\u2019t played together since January 12 and will likely continue to use a smaller lineup against opponents.\u00a0 \u201cSearching for lineups that look comfortable,\u201d said coach Erik Spoelstra.\u00a0 \u201cSometimes it happens at the wrong time, when you\u2019re playing your best basketball.\u201d\u00a0 The team is 31-13 overall on the season and has compiled an 8-3 mark against Eastern Conference opponents away from South Beach.\u00a0 Miami is 6-1 ATS as a road favorite of 3.5 to 6 points this season and bettors will be watching movement all day on the NBA lines page.<\/p>\n

The Heat and Knicks meet for the third of four match-ups this season, with Miami leading the season-series, 2-0.\u00a0 Last season, Miami swept the season-series, 3-0, and has won seven consecutive games versus New York.\u00a0 The two teams have dramatically different approaches on the defensive end, as the Heat are allowing nearly 13 points less per game (106.3-93.9).\u00a0 The squad should have plenty in the tank to put together another strong defensive effort tonight due to last playing on January 22, which happened to be a 120-103 victory over Toronto that snapped a four-game losing streak.<\/p>\n

New York knows that it will need to rely heavily upon star forward Amare Stoudemire to have any chance of picking up its first victory against Miami tonight.\u00a0 He is averaging 27.0 points and 10.5 rebounds in two games against the Heat, including a 30-point effort in a 106-98 loss on December 28.\u00a0 The Knicks are 11-9 overall at home this season, including a 7-4 mark against Eastern Conference opponents.\u00a0 The team recently snapped a six-game losing streak Monday with a 115-106 win against Washington.\u00a0 \u201cWe knew how important this game was,\u201d Stoudemire said.\u00a0 \u201cWe all pretty much showed the urgency to get this win.\u201d\u00a0 New York is 17-5 ATS as an underdog this season and 27-15 ATS in all games.<\/p>\n

The Knicks will be playing the front end of their 12th of 21 back-to-back sets this season tonight.\u00a0 New York is 5-6 in the first game and will be playing Miami for the second time this season when playing the front end of a home-away set.\u00a0 The defense must focus on stopping Heat guard Dwyane Wade, who is averaging 33 points and 8.5 rebounds in two meetings this season.\u00a0 he scored a career-high 55 against the Knicks on March 12, 2009.<\/p>\n

Bettors will be interested in backing the Knicks due to 23-10-1 ATS mark, while the Heat are 7-17 ATS on three or more days of rest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Miami Heat at New York Knicks Thursday, 1\/27\/10, 8:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 TNT Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Miami -3 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Miami -3.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 208 Current Total:\u00a0 211.5 Miami will look to win its eighth straight game over New York tonight when facing off at Madison Square Garden with one of the \u201cBig Three\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":9490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[669,2896,3622,66,707,115],"class_list":["post-12823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-amare-stoudemire","tag-dwyane-wade","tag-eastern-conference","tag-lebron-james","tag-miami-heat","tag-new-york-knicks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12823","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=12823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12824,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12823\/revisions\/12824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}