NBA Betting – Heat Need Perfect D vs Warriors
By Zack Garrison in News
Updated: January 17, 2018 at 9:39 am ESTPublished:
Miami Heat at Golden State Warriors (-11.5, 206 o/u)
One of the best defenses in the NBA will try to slow down the best offense in the league when the Miami Heat (22-15, 7-7 Away) visit the Golden State Warriors (35-2, 17-0 Home) tonight at Oracle Arena (10:30 PM Eastern).
Miami has split the first two of its six-game western swing, downing the Suns on Friday (103-95) but falling to the Jazz last night (98-83). The team is surrendering just over 94 points per game, second in the league to the Spurs. Those defensive stats may take a bit of a hit tonight, though; not only are the Warriors pouring in a ludicrous 114 points per night (four more than last year), but Miami center Hassan Whiteside (11.1 RPG, 3.8 BPG) is attempting to play through a knee injury.
The Heat will need a perfect performance at both ends of the floor to upset a Golden State team that has yet to lose at home this season.
“It’s spectacular. They’re playing amazing basketball,” Miami forward Chris Bosh said to the Associated Press. “A lot of their guys have come back and improved, including their best player [Steph Curry]. It’s just a collective punch dealing with those guys. … They’re just playing with high, high confidence right now.”
Golden State upped its scoring average over the last two, piling up 128 points in back-to-back wins over the Kings (128-116 on Saturday) and Blazers (128-108 on Friday).
Curry missed parts of three games recently, but has returned to the lineup with a vengeance, averaging 27.75 points over the last four. He scored 38 in the win over Sacramento.
“He looked like he had more of a rhythm going tonight. I think all of the injuries — he’s kept getting kicked — it’s throwing him off a little bit. He’s still playing at an MVP level. It should looked like he had a nice bounce and rhythm to his game tonight,” said interim coach Luke Walton.
The Warriors are laying a ton of points in pretty much every home game, but they’re still 8-3 ATS in their last 11 games as a favorite of 11.0 or greater. The Heat, meanwhile, have struggled against quality competition, going 10-21-2 ATS in their last 33 games against teams at or above .600.
Pick: Golden State (-11.5).
(Photo credit:Â Noah Salzman (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], 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.
