{"id":21157,"date":"2012-01-19T13:14:17","date_gmt":"2012-01-19T18:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=21157"},"modified":"2012-01-19T13:14:17","modified_gmt":"2012-01-19T18:14:17","slug":"nba-predictions-los-angeles-lakers-vs-miami-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nba-predictions-los-angeles-lakers-vs-miami-heat-21157\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Predictions: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Miami Heat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Lakers at Miami Heat
\nThursday, 1\/19\/12, 8:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 TNT
\nOpening Point Spread: Miami -5.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Miami -5.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 191
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 191
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Lakers<\/a>
Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant has played a lot of minutes this season already<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Los Angeles has won six of its last seven games and comes off a 73-70 win over the Dallas Mavericks as 3.5-point home favorites.\u00a0 The Lakers are 1-4 on the road this season, as the squad starts a two-game trip in the Sunshine State.\u00a0 Star guard Kobe Bryant is enjoying a great start to the 2011-12 campaign, as he scored at least 40 points in four straight games, but ranks seventh in the NBA in averaging 37.7 minutes per game.\u00a0 \u201cI do want to get it down,\u201d commented Lakers head coach Mike Brown.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s played a ton of minutes too early right now.\u201d\u00a0 Los Angeles is 0-2 ATS as a road underdog of 3.5 to 6 points.<\/p>\n

The Lakers dropped both meetings with the Heat a year ago, posting a 5-5 record in their last 10 meetings in the series.\u00a0 Los Angeles ranks 19th in the league in scoring 93.3 points per game, but comes in with the fifth-best defense.\u00a0 That unit will be challenged in facing a Miami squad that averages 107.2 points per game, which leads all teams.<\/p>\n

Miami snapped a three-game losing streak by capturing a 120-98 blowout win over the San Antonio Spurs as seven-point home favorites Tuesday night.\u00a0 The Heat have also managed to go \u2018over\u2019 the total in six of their last seven games, including a posted total of 197.5 last time out.\u00a0 Star forward LeBron James is leading the team with guard Dwyane Wade out of the lineup with an ankle injury.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s not about LeBron and Kobe,\u201d he stated this week.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s the Lakers versus Heat thing.\u201d\u00a0 He has averaged 27.9 points, 7.6 rebounds and seven assists in the last 11 meetings versus Bryant.\u00a0 Miami is 2-4 ATS after scoring 105 or more points.<\/p>\n

The Heat shot a blistering 68.3 percent from the floor during the final 24 minutes of their game against the Spurs, outscoring them by a lopsided 71-35 margin.\u00a0 James scored 33 points and dished out 10 assists, getting help from center Chris Bosh pouring in 30 points.\u00a0 Miami\u2019s eight-point differential is third-best in the league.\u00a0 Everyone around the franchise is hoping that forward Mike Miller has gotten over nagging injuries, hitting all six three-point shots versus the Spurs on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Lakers due to their 5-1 ATS mark as a road underdog of 5 to 10.5 points, while the Heat are 1-4 ATS versus Western Conference foes.<\/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":"

Los Angeles Lakers at Miami Heat Thursday, 1\/19\/12, 8:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 TNT Opening Point Spread: Miami -5.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Miami -5.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 191 Current Total:\u00a0 191 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Los Angeles has won six of its last seven games and comes off a 73-70 win over the Dallas Mavericks as 3.5-point […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":3934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[692,67,66,68,707,18],"class_list":["post-21157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-chris-bosh","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-miami-heat","tag-nba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21157","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=21157"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21158,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21157\/revisions\/21158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}