{"id":13637,"date":"2011-02-24T09:32:23","date_gmt":"2011-02-24T14:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=13637"},"modified":"2011-02-24T09:32:23","modified_gmt":"2011-02-24T14:32:23","slug":"eastern-conference-tug-of-war-miami-heat-at-chicago-bulls-nba-handicapping-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/eastern-conference-tug-of-war-miami-heat-at-chicago-bulls-nba-handicapping-preview-13637\/","title":{"rendered":"Eastern Conference Tug of War: Miami Heat at Chicago Bulls NBA Handicapping Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Miami Heat at Chicago Bulls
\nThursday, 2\/24\/11, 8:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 TNT
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Miami -1
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Miami -2.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 192
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 191.5<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Miami Heat have won 11 of their last 12 games and are favored on the road against the Chicago Bulls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Miami will not be missing star LeBron James for its second meeting against tonight\u2019s opponent after dropping a 99-96 decision to Chicago at the United Center on January 15.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to it,\u201d said Heat forward Chris Bosh.\u00a0 \u201cFor one, they\u2019re one of the best teams in the East, really the league for that matter and they\u2019re playing well.\u201d\u00a0 The Heat coasted to an easy 117-97 home win over the Kings in their first game back since the All-Star break, which was actually the team\u2019s 11th victory in 12 games.\u00a0 James led the squad with 31 points, while Bosh and Dwyane Wade combined for another 45.\u00a0 \u201cWe have to understand that we cannot afford to take a step backward and we have to keep moving forward,\u201d James commented.\u00a0 \u201cEvery game, every practice, every film session is important.\u201d\u00a0 Miami is 28-27 ATS on the season and currently a road favorite on the NBA lines page.<\/p>\n

The Heat are currently 42-15 overall and have produced a 13-5 road mark against Eastern Conference foes.\u00a0 The overall mark ties the best 57-game start in franchise history, matching the 1996-97 squad\u2019s success.\u00a0 Miami is 37-45 all-time against Chicago in the regular season, including a 14-27 mark in games played in the Windy City.\u00a0 The team has found considerable success on the road this season, collecting 21 road wins that has it tied for the most in the NBA this season.<\/p>\n

Chicago was obviously focused on tonight\u2019s game when dropping a 118-113 road game against Toronto last night, allowing the opposition to shoot 58.1 percent from the field in the process.\u00a0 \u201cWe wanted this so we would go into the Miami game with a lot of confidence,\u201d said point guard Derrick Rose.\u00a0 \u201cNow we\u2019ve got to go into it aggressively.\u00a0 We\u2019ve got to prove the point that we can play defense.\u201d\u00a0 It was a surprising effort due to the team having given up more than 100 points in just five of the previous 36 games.\u00a0 The 118 points allowed were the second-most this season by Chicago, which is limiting opponents to 92.4 per game.\u00a0 Chicago is 9-4 ATS as an underdog this season.<\/p>\n

The Bulls welcomed back one of their strongest interior players from injury last night, as Joakim Noah scored seven points and grabbed 16 rebounds.\u00a0 Chicago is glad to have him back, but it\u2019s also important to point out that the team went 22-8 without him.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s definitely not the result I wanted but we\u2019ve got to keep fighting,\u201d he commented.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve go to come with a better edge.\u201d\u00a0 At home this season, the defensive unit has held opponents to a league-low 41.3 percent shooting from the floor.<\/p>\n

Bettors are likely going to back the Bulls due to their 13-6 ATS mark as a home underdog, while the Heat are 4-10-2 ATS in Chicago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Miami Heat at Chicago Bulls Thursday, 2\/24\/11, 8:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 TNT Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Miami -1 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Miami -2.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 192 Current Total:\u00a0 191.5 Miami will not be missing star LeBron James for its second meeting against tonight\u2019s opponent after dropping a 99-96 decision to Chicago at the United Center on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":9323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[174,692,521,2896,3622,66,707],"class_list":["post-13637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-chris-bosh","tag-derrick-rose","tag-dwyane-wade","tag-eastern-conference","tag-lebron-james","tag-miami-heat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13637","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=13637"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13639,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13637\/revisions\/13639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}