{"id":13191,"date":"2011-02-08T12:31:23","date_gmt":"2011-02-08T17:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=13191"},"modified":"2011-02-08T12:31:23","modified_gmt":"2011-02-08T17:31:23","slug":"nba-handicapping-indiana-pacers-at-miami-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nba-handicapping-indiana-pacers-at-miami-heat-13191\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Handicapping: Indiana Pacers at Miami Heat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indiana Pacers AT Miami Heat
\nFeb 8, 2011 at 7:30 PM EST
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 Miami -11
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 Miami -11
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 199
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 199
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 Mia -700 \/ Ind +550
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 Mia -775 \/ Ind +575<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Danny Granger's numbers are down considerably this season<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Heat have yet another winning streak going, this time six straight, and they’ll look to extend that to seven tonight against an Indiana team that handed them their worst loss of the season back in November.\u00a0 Miami last beat the Clippers 97-79 and Miami fans and players are feeling confident about the chances for an NBA title.<\/p>\n

When asked the reason for their recent success, Miami guard Dwyane Wade commented, \u201cFirst of all, we\u2019re healthy.\u00a0 Not healthy as in all 100 percent, but healthy as in we have all of our bodies \u2026 and we\u2019re able to play with different lineups and the things we envisioned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond just health, one could also cite Miami’s stingy defense as a big reason for their recent success.\u00a0 The Heat’s last five opponents have all scored 94 or less, including three of the five scoring less than 90.\u00a0 That’s not to say Indiana will be a pushover, however.\u00a0 They have a five game winning streak of their own and haven’t lost since Jim O’Brien was fired a little over a week ago.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

Indiana is 5-1 SU in their last 6 games nad the total has gone OVER in 7 of their last 9 road games.\u00a0 Indiana is 3-14 SU in their last 17 road games and 1-3-1 ATS in their last 5 road games.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Indiana’s last 6 games against the Heat and they are 1-4 SU in their last 5 against the Heat.\u00a0 The Pacers are 1-4 ATS in their last 5 against Miami and the total has gone UNDER in 4 of their last 5 road games against the Heat.\u00a0 Indiana is 1-4 SU in their last 5 road games in Miami and 1-4 ATS in those games.<\/p>\n

The total has gone OVER in 4 of Miami’s last 5 games and they are 5-0 SU in those games.\u00a0 Miami is 7-1 SU in their last 8 home games and 7-14-1 ATS in their last 22 home games.\u00a0 THe total has gone UNDER in 5 of Miami’s last 6 games against the Pacers and Miami is 4-1 SU in their last 5 against Indiana.\u00a0 Miami is 4-8 ATS in their last 12 home games against the Pacers and the total has gone UNDER In 4 of their last 5 games at home against the Pacers.\u00a0 Miami is 4-1 SU in their last 5 home games against Indiana.<\/p>\n

Key Matchups:<\/p>\n

Mike Dunleavy vs. Dwyane Wade<\/strong><\/p>\n

If there were ever a mismatch, this would be one.\u00a0 Dunleavy is way too slow and unathletic to cover someone like Wade and you have to think his backup Paul George, who is a good defender, will see extended minutes tonight to try to slow Wade down.\u00a0 George, a 6’8″ rookie forward from Fresno State has averaged a steal a game in only 18 minutes a night and has shown a propensity to play what could eventually become lock down defense.\u00a0 The Pacers would miss Dunleavy’s play making with George in the game, but that’s a trade off they may have to take.\u00a0 Wade has scored 25 points per game in his last 2 games and before a 14 point stinker against the Magic he had recorded three straight 30+ point games.\u00a0 Wade is only 0.7 points behind Lebron for the team lead in points.<\/p>\n

Danny Granger vs. LeBron James<\/strong><\/p>\n

After a 51 point eruption against the Magic, James has gone 13 of 28 from the floor in his last two games for 31 combined points over those games.\u00a0 The Heat still won both games though, by an average of 15 points.\u00a0 James will be tested at both ends of the court tonight, however, as Granger is the Pacers’ leading scorer.\u00a0 Granger’s numbers, however, are down considerably over his previous two seasons.\u00a0 In 08-09 Granger averaged 25.8 points per game and 24.2 in 09-10, but this year he is down to 20.9.\u00a0 His percentages are still roughly the same across the board; he’s just taking a few less shots per game.\u00a0\u00a0 He has also scored less than 20 in 4 of his last 6 games.\u00a0 In the Pacers’ victory over Miami on November 22nd, Granger scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.\u00a0 He also held LeBron in check, allowing 25 points to the superstar.\u00a0 He’ll have to perform similarly tonight if the Pacers are going to pull another upset.<\/p>\n

Despite NBA oddsmakers favoring the Heat by 11, the Pacers have a legitimate shot at stealing this game from the Heat.\u00a0 They matchup pretty well against Miami, and if Paul George can keep Wade in check, this could be another Pacers victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indiana Pacers AT Miami Heat Feb 8, 2011 at 7:30 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 Miami -11 Current Line:\u00a0 Miami -11 Opening Total:\u00a0 199 Current Total:\u00a0 199 Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 Mia -700 \/ Ind +550 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 Mia -775 \/ Ind +575 The Heat have yet another winning streak going, this time six straight, and they’ll look […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":9310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[566,2896,565,66,707,1370,1918],"class_list":["post-13191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-danny-granger","tag-dwyane-wade","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-lebron-james","tag-miami-heat","tag-mike-dunleavy","tag-paul-george"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13191","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\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13191"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13193,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13191\/revisions\/13193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}