NBA Betting Odds: Los Angeles Lakers at Miami Heat

Added on Mar 10, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

Thursday’s marquee matchup in the NBA will feature the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers as they head to Miami to take on LeBron James and the Miami Heat. The Lakers are 6 1/2 games back on San Antonio in the Western Conference but just 1/2 game behind second place Dallas. The Heat are playing some of their worst basketball of the season and have lost five straight. They’ve dropped to 3rd place in the East and are 2 1/2 games back of second place Chicago.

Los Angeles Lakers at Miami Heat
March 10, 2011 4:05 PM Pacific

No one is ever going to feel sorry for this Miami Heat team, but they really can’t catch a break. In desperate need of a confidence building win after losing five straight who shows up in South Florida but the World Champion Los Angeles Lakers. That would be the same Laker team the Heat routed at the Staples Center on Christmas Day but are now playing their best basketball of the season. Los Angeles has won 8 straight going 7-1 ATS and has put up 12 wins in their last 16 games going 11-1 ATS. There is some lookahead potential for the Lakers–they play the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday which in the ‘big picture’ is a much more important game for L.A.

Of course at this point you just can’t back Miami. Not only have the Heat looked awful in recent games they’ve been bickering about their roles within the team. They may only have a 5 game SU losing streak but they’re currently on a 7 game losing streak against the spread. All you need to know about the Heat can be summed up in a couple of pointspread category breakdowns. Against teams with winning records Miami is 10-16 ATS on the year and currently on a 2-9 ATS run. Off an upset SU loss as a favorite the Heat are 4-11 ATS in their next game. After 3 or more losses Miami is 2-3 SU/1-4 ATS. The Heat have the hype, but they don’t have the mental toughness of a championship team. The team in purple and gold, on the other hand, do. The Lakers are 19-10 ATS against opponents with winning records this year and are currently on a 10-3 ATS run in that category. And there’s that little matter of the Christmas Day loss to Miami. Think LA has forgotten that? How does a 6-1 SU/5-2 ATS mark when attempting to avenge a home loss against an opponent sound? Miami is 10-20 ATS at home, LA is 20-15 ATS on the road.

In general, sports betting doesn’t reward ‘obvious’ plays and its hard to get more ‘obvious’ going against the dysfunctional and struggling Heat with the NBA champions playing their best ball of the season. Still, we don’t see Kobe Bryant missing an opportunity to kick Miami when their down. They don’t call him ‘The Black Mamba’ for nothing. If Miami can go into San Antonio and kick around a composed and confident Spurs team they should be able to cover a small chalk price against this Miami trainwreck.

Bet Los Angeles Lakers -2 over Miami Heat