Tip off: 7:35 PM, EST, Wednesday
Spread: MIA -10
Total: 209
M/L: MIA -660, BRO +535
The Miami Heat are 3-1, but all three of their victories have come at America Airlines Arena, and NBA oddsmakers expect the outcome to be much the same when they face the Brooklyn Nets tonight, setting the line 10 points in favor of the Heat.
The Heat rolled over the Phoenix Suns Monday night, winning by 25. They received 63 points from their Big Three and shot 57.7 percent from the floor. They also out-rebounded the Suns 49-38. Can this dominance continue against a much improved Nets team?
Mikhail Prokhorov set the bar high for his Nets squad, declaring they would win a championship in three seasons from now. So far, they are 1-1. Their home opener was postponed due to Hurricane Sandy, but they came back last Saturday to beat the Toronto Raptors by seven, before losing Monday night to the Minnesota Timberwolves by 11 points.
The Nets had five players in double figures (Brook Lopez, Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, C.J. Watson and MarShon Brooks), and they shot 56.5 percent from the floor, but were out rebounded 46-30. Brook Lopez still isn’t hitting the boards, and Kris Humphries can’t do it all. The Nets are not a team without problems, but they are much improved.
Are they improved enough to cover this spread? Improved enough to beat the Heat at home? Unlikely, but let’s examine the key match ups for tonight’s game:
Brook Lopez vs. Chris Bosh
Lopez, as mentioned, is more of a scoring forward than a true center, but Chris Bosh will have his hands full with him on the defensive end. Lopez is a talented scorer and with Joe Johnson and Deron Williams feeding him the rock now, he should be getting better shots this season.
The Nets will benefit from having both Johnson and Williams able to distribute the ball, and the efficiency of Lopez, and the entire Nets roster, should increase. Bosh, meanwhile, is not a true center in his own right. The center position is really a matchup between two power forwards, but both are crucial to their teams attack, and neither are great defenders. Which can contain the other, if possible, will help determine the outcome of this game, even more so than the marquee match ups at shooting guard (Joe Johnson vs. Dwyane Wade) or small forward (Gerald Wallace vs. LeBron James).
