{"id":20537,"date":"2011-12-25T09:53:05","date_gmt":"2011-12-25T14:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=20537"},"modified":"2011-12-25T09:58:16","modified_gmt":"2011-12-25T14:58:16","slug":"heat-vs-mavericks-nba-finals-rematch-highlights-christmas-day-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/heat-vs-mavericks-nba-finals-rematch-highlights-christmas-day-card-20537\/","title":{"rendered":"Heat vs. Mavericks: NBA Finals Rematch Highlights Christmas Day Card"},"content":{"rendered":"

Miami Heat at Dallas Mavericks
\nSunday, 12\/25\/11, 2:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ABC
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Miami -3.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Miami -4
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 190.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 188
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Heat<\/a>
The Miami Heat are ready to make another run at making the NBA finals<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Miami may be seeking revenge from an NBA finals loss to the Dallas Mavericks, but the team will also be looking to snap a 14-game losing streak in the regular season series.\u00a0 \u201cWe didn\u2019t come together to make the playoffs or come together to win a playoff series, we came together to win the NBA finals,\u201d stated LeBron James this week.\u00a0 The Heat have tallied an 11-12 record in season-opening contests, including a 2-5 mark on the road.\u00a0 Miami is 10-3 ATS as a road favorite of 3.5 to 6 points the last two-plus seasons.<\/p>\n

The Heat are no strangers to playing on Christmas Day, lacing up their sneakers for the eighth time Sunday, posting a 4-3 record that includes a 96-80 road win over the Los Angeles Lakers last year.\u00a0 Miami is still led by the trio of James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, while adding role player Shane Battier to the mix.\u00a0 Bosh has added some bulk to his frame during the offseason to handle more responsibility in the paint, something that other teams around the league consider the Heat\u2019s weakness.<\/p>\n

Dallas is set to defend its first-ever NBA title by facing the team that it beat in the finals, looking to post the franchise\u2019s 18th win in 19 tries in the regular-season series.\u00a0 The Mavericks are considered long shots to capture back-to-back championships.\u00a0 \u201cWe weren\u2019t the favorites to win it last year, so nobody really knows what\u2019s going to happen,\u201d stated Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki.\u00a0 The German product averaged 26.0 points during the finals, which was actually three points higher than his regular-season average.\u00a0 Dallas is 14-5 ATS on Sundays the past two-plus seasons.<\/p>\n

The Mavericks will play at home on Christmas Day for the first time in franchise history, posting a perfect 2-0 record on the holiday with both victories coming on the road.\u00a0 Eight of the last 10 defending NBA champions have followed their title season with a season-opening victory the next year.\u00a0 Dallas is 18-13 all-time in season-opening games and 19-12 in home openers.\u00a0 Nowitzki has been a star on this day, scoring at least 30 points in both games.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Mavericks due to their 8-1-1 ATS mark as an underdog, while the Heat are 1-3-1 ATS in the last five meetings.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the NBA handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Miami Heat at Dallas Mavericks Sunday, 12\/25\/11, 2:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ABC Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Miami -3.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Miami -4 Opening Total:\u00a0 190.5 Current Total:\u00a0 188 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Miami may be seeking revenge from an NBA finals loss to the Dallas Mavericks, but the team will also be looking to snap […]<\/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":[6234,19,20,66,707,186],"class_list":["post-20537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-christmas-day","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-dirk-nowitzki","tag-lebron-james","tag-miami-heat","tag-nba-finals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20537","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=20537"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20539,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20537\/revisions\/20539"}],"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=20537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}