NBA - 713 Miami Heat @ 714 Atlanta Hawks
Projected Line: Miami by 9 points
Atlanta is very distracted right now with all the trade rumors about Josh Smith. He publicly stated today that all he wanted was to win in Atlanta or anywhere else. This statement added to the problems that he has been having with coach Larry Drew quickly makes us understand that he isn't very interested in staying in Atlanta. The Hawks have been competitive lately due to some good offense. Their style has been well documented before, with an ultra fast lineup with Al Horford, Josh Smith, Devin Harris and Jeff Teague, who are all above average athletic players for their positions. Thanks to that, Atlanta has been a great transition team and they have been averaging almost 19 fast break points per game on their last nine games!
However for tonight's game against Miami, coach Larry Drew has already announced that he will change the starting lineup and start Zaza Pachulia, Al Horford, Josh Smith, Deshawn Stevenson and Jeff Teague. He wants to use a big lineup in order to dominate Miami down low, but in my opinion this will only cause problems to Atlanta's offense who will be forced to use more half court sets, where they haven't effective. It's also important to note that Miami is #2 in the league in transition defense and they are also #4 in turnover rate, so it would never be easy for Atlanta to score in transition against Miami, but in a half court game, the task for the Hawks gets even tougher!
Regarding Miami's offense, there isn't a lot to say about it. They are killing every opponent and I don't think Atlanta is ready to shut them down tonight. Also note that Miami has outrebounded their opponents on their last three games and they have been having better rebounding numbers than Atlanta over their last 10 and 5 games! This is perhaps why Larry Drew decided to use a big lineup tonight, but this won't work against Miami, who will have an easy win tonight. I'm taking the Heat in here.
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 713 Miami Heat (-5,5) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker
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