NBA Betting – Charlotte Hornets at Miami Heat
By Zack Garrison in News
Updated: January 17, 2018 at 9:40 am ESTPublished:
Charlotte Hornets at Miami Heat (-2, 195 o/u)
Tonight, the Charlotte Hornets will land in Miami to play against the Heat at American Airlines Arena (8:00 p.m. Eastern).
After opening the season with three straight wins, the Miami Heat (7-6) have lost six of their last ten and four of their last six.  Though, the Heat managed to top a struggling Magic team last night, the squad hasn’t looked the same since point guard Dwyane Wade was sidelined. The Marquette product has missed the Heat’s last five games with a sore hamstring
Mario Chalmers has done his best to replace Wade’s offense. Chalmers, who is averaging just over 13 points per game on the year, has upped that to 19 per night over the last four while logging more than 34 minutes per game.
Power forward Chris Bosh has been solid all season for the Heat. Bosh has led the Heat in both scoring and rebounding all season long (20.6 PPG and 8.6 RPG) and, most recently, put up 15 and nine in the win over the Magic.
On the other side of the floor, the Charlotte Hornets (4-9) are riding a four-game losing streak and have won only one of their last seven.  Their losses came against the Los Angeles Lakers, Portland Trail Blazers, Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors, Dallas Mavericks. Indiana Pacers, and, most recently, Orlando Magic. The Hornets have been terrible on offense, averaging just 94.4 points per game (26th in the NBA). Ten-year veteran Al Jefferson has been one of the lone bright spots for the Hornets, averaging 20.9 PPG and 7.1 RPG. New-comer Lance Stephenson, who averaged almost 14 points per game for the Pacers last season, is putting up just 9.8 per night so far. At this point, the Hornets brass may be wishing Stephenson’s two-year, $18 million contract was just a one-year deal.
The Heat have won nine of the last ten against Charlotte, and should keep the trend going tonight at home.
(Photo credit:Â Keith Allison (Flickr: Andray Blatche and Chris Bosh) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)
Sports Writer
Zack is a tour guide whose favorite sports are football, baseball, and golf. He enjoys giving obnoxious commentary during games and hopes to some day write a book about sports. His favorite underdog victory was the Diamondbacks beating the Yankees in game 7 of the World Series.
