NBA Betting – Miami Heat at Washington Wizards
Miami Heat at Washington Wizards
Tonight, Washington (10-5) will look to avenge their opening night loss to division rival Miami (8-7) at the Verizon Center (7:00 p.m. Eastern).
On opening night, Chris Bosh and Norris Cole had marvelous games, leading the Heat to a 107-95 win. Bosh scored 26 points and pulled down 15 rebounds, while the flat-topped Cole scored a career-high 23 points.
Washington, Miami, and Atlanta are all battling for first place in the Southeast Division. Neither Washington nor Miami has been able to win consistently within the division; Washington has a 2-2 record, while Miami is 3-2.
The Wizards are 1-2 in their last three games. They lost 1113-87 to the Cleveland Cavaliers and 106-102 to the Atlanta Hawks, before edging out the Pelicans 83-80 on Saturday. Wizards coach, Randy Wittman, was unhappy with the defense in the two losses.
“Our defensive pressure the last two games has been gone for whatever reason,” said Wittman. “We’ve got to find that back.” They indeed found it again on Saturday, holding the Pelicans to a season-low 80 points.
The Wizards have won five of their last seven at the Verizon Center and star point guard John Wall is happy to be back at home. “Every team plays differently at home,” said Wall.
On the other side, the Miami Heat are one game over .500 and, most recently, beat the Knicks 87-79, covering as three-point road favorites.
Dwyane Wade returned from injury in that game, playing over 32 minutes and scoring 27 points (including 13 in the final frame).
Chris Bosh (21.7 PPG, 8.8 RPG) and Mario Chalmers (14.6 PPG, 4.8 APG and 1.7 SPG) were doing their best to soldier on without Wade, but the Heat weren’t been able to get by the better teams in the league without their own star point guard. Their three wins without Wade came against the Hornets (4-14), Magic (7-12), and Nets (6-9).
Tonight, they face a Wizards team that is five games over .500 and playing well at home. Miami has won six of the last ten meetings against Washington, but aren’t the same team without LeBron. While Wade’s return is undoubtedly a boon for the struggling Heat, expect the Wizards to play well again on their home floor and extend their division lead.
(Photo credit: Keith Allison (Flickr: John Wall) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)
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.
