{"id":21295,"date":"2012-01-27T11:19:57","date_gmt":"2012-01-27T16:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=21295"},"modified":"2012-01-27T11:19:57","modified_gmt":"2012-01-27T16:19:57","slug":"nba-predictions-new-york-knicks-vs-miami-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nba-predictions-new-york-knicks-vs-miami-heat-21295\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Predictions: New York Knicks vs. Miami Heat"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Knicks at Miami Heat
\nFriday, 1\/27\/12, 8:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Miami -10
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Miami -11
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 199
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 195.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony has been hampered by injuries most of the 2011-12 season<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New York has dropped seven of its last eight games and will continue a four-game road trip Friday night in Miami.\u00a0 The Knicks are going to be hard-pressed to win their third consecutive game in this series, especially with star forward Carmelo Anthony banged up.\u00a0 \u201cI can\u2019t really put my finger on it right now,\u201d commented Anthony this week.\u00a0 \u201cI can\u2019t figure it out.\u201d\u00a0 He is averaging a team-high 23.6 points per game and is one of four starters averaging double figures in scoring.\u00a0 New York is 0-5 ATS off an upset loss as a favorite this season.<\/p>\n

The Knicks have had trouble scoring all season, being held below 90 points in five of the last six games.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve got to find a way to score,\u201d commented Knicks head coach Mike D\u2019Antoni.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re not scoring the basketball.\u201d\u00a0 New York is desperately needing Baron Davis to get healthy to fill the point guard role, while the team is missing a reliable three-point shooter to extend the defense, ranking as one of the worst shooting teams from beyond the arc despite being among the leaders in attempts.<\/p>\n

Miami has won five of its last six games and comes off a 101-98 win over the Detroit Pistons as 8.5-point road favorites.\u00a0 The Heat have failed to cover their last three games after putting together a three-game winning streak against the spread.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re getting there,\u201d commented Heat forward Shane Battier.\u00a0 There\u2019s no question that the team is one of the best in the NBA defensively, holding its last six opponents to 91.8 points per game.\u00a0 Miami is 2-6 ATS when playing against a team with a losing record.<\/p>\n

The Heat are led by the play of forward LeBron James, who is averaging 29.1 points and 8.0 rebounds per game.\u00a0 Miami has put together a 13-5 record thus far during the 2011-12 campaign, including a 5-2 mark when hosting Eastern Conference teams.\u00a0 Offensively, the team is averaging 104.4 points per game, shooting 48.8 percent from the floor.\u00a0 Center Chris Bosh has really come along over the past four games, scoring at least 20 points a contest, which is currently a season high in that category.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Knicks due to their 5-1 ATS mark as a road underdog of 5 to 10.5 points, while the Heat are 3-8 ATS at home versus teams with a losing road record.<\/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":"

New York Knicks at Miami Heat Friday, 1\/27\/12, 8:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Miami -10 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Miami -11 Opening Total:\u00a0 199 Current Total:\u00a0 195.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker New York has dropped seven of its last eight games and will continue a four-game road trip Friday night in Miami.\u00a0 The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":15685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[49,3622,1492,66,707,18,115],"class_list":["post-21295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-carmelo-anthony","tag-eastern-conference","tag-espn","tag-lebron-james","tag-miami-heat","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21295","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=21295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21296,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21295\/revisions\/21296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}