{"id":13809,"date":"2011-03-03T09:41:01","date_gmt":"2011-03-03T14:41:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=13809"},"modified":"2011-03-03T09:41:01","modified_gmt":"2011-03-03T14:41:01","slug":"south-beach-clash-orlando-magic-at-miami-heat-free-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/south-beach-clash-orlando-magic-at-miami-heat-free-picks-13809\/","title":{"rendered":"South Beach Clash: Orlando Magic at Miami Heat Free Picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Orlando Magic at Miami Heat
\nThursday, 3\/3\/11, 8:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 TNT
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Miami -5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Miami -4.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 198
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 197<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Miami has won two of the previous three meetings with Orlando this season heading into Thursday night's contest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Orlando has dropped two of three meetings against Miami this season and look to even up the series while gaining ground in the Eastern Conference standings.\u00a0 The Magic are 4 1\/2 games behind the Heat heading into tonight\u2019s clash and come in riding a three-game winning streak, including a 116-110 win over New York on Tuesday.\u00a0 \u201cWe played hard and we got to the point where we drew the line and we said we\u2019re not going to let this one slip away,\u201d said Quentin Richardson.\u00a0 The team has tallied a 39-22 overall record, including a 15-13 mark on the road.\u00a0 Orlando is 1-5 ATS as an underdog this year and 25-19 ATS in this situation the past three years.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Magic are 41-45 all-time against the Heat and have posted a 17-25 record on the road in the series.\u00a0 Orlando has won 15 of the last 20 regular season meetings with Miami.\u00a0 All-Star center Dwight Howard has been playing great basketball of late, scoring 30 points and grabbing 16 rebounds in the victory against the Knicks.\u00a0 He\u2019s averaged 20.0 points and 13.7 rebounds in three match-ups against the Heat this season.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Miami enters Thursday night\u2019s game with a disappointing 13-14 record against teams .500 or better, which is far different from the 29-2 mark posted against losing clubs.\u00a0 The Heat dropped their latest on Sunday night against the Knicks with a 91-86 loss.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve got to figure it out,\u201d said guard Dwyane Wade.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s why we continue to play these games.\u00a0 We continue to build habits.\u201d\u00a0 All-Star forward LeBron James definitely figured it out in his last encounter with Orlando, dropping a season-high 51 points in a 104-100 victory on February 3.\u00a0 Miami is 25-27 ATS as a favorite this season and bettors will be interested in checking out the NBA lines page throughout the day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Heat\u2019s defense has been stellar throughout the season, even in defeat, which was demonstrated against the Knicks on Sunday.\u00a0 Miami held New York to 38.8 percent shooting from the field, marking the 15th time this season they have held an opponent under 40 percent shooting from the floor.\u00a0 The squad is expected to add point guard Mike Bibby to its roster this evening, as he forfeited next season\u2019s $6.2 million salary after being traded from Atlanta to Sacramento.\u00a0 Miami had to release guard Carlos Arroyo in order to make the transaction happen.\u00a0 \u201cThis was a very difficult decision to make because Carlos has done a great job for this team and this organization,\u201d said team president Pat Riley.\u00a0 \u201cHe is truly a first-class individual and professional.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bettors will be interested in playing the Heat due to the favorite being 4-1 ATS in the last five meetings, while the Magic are 3-12-2 ATS as a road underdog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Orlando Magic at Miami Heat Thursday, 3\/3\/11, 8:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 TNT Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Miami -5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Miami -4.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 198 Current Total:\u00a0 197 Orlando has dropped two of three meetings against Miami this season and look to even up the series while gaining ground in the Eastern Conference standings.\u00a0 The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":8699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[833,2896,3622,66,707,659],"class_list":["post-13809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-dwight-howard","tag-dwyane-wade","tag-eastern-conference","tag-lebron-james","tag-miami-heat","tag-orlando-magic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13809","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=13809"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13810,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13809\/revisions\/13810"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}