{"id":10670,"date":"2011-03-10T13:33:07","date_gmt":"2011-03-10T13:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/?p=10670"},"modified":"2011-03-10T13:33:07","modified_gmt":"2011-03-10T13:33:07","slug":"lakers-vs-heat-nba-on-tnt-odds-picks-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2011\/03\/lakers-vs-heat-nba-on-tnt-odds-picks-predictions\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers vs. Heat NBA on TNT Odds, Picks, Predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>OffshoreInsiders.com Senior Writer Vegas Matty previews Los Angeles Lakers at Miami Heat. <\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Miami Heat (43-21) made a serious statement the last time they faced the Los Angeles Lakers (46-19) on Christmas Day.\u00a0 On Thursday before another national television audience, the struggling Heat will simply be trying to end their own five-game losing streak along with an eight-game winning streak for the defending NBA champion Lakers (-2).<\/p>\n<p>Miami dominated Los Angeles 96-80 at the Staples Center in the last meeting behind a triple double from LeBron James, who totaled 27 points, 11 rebound and 10 assists.\u00a0 Chris Bosh also had an impressive game against LA\u2019s big men with 24 points and a game-high 13 rebounds while Dwyane Wade chipped in with 18 points and six assists.<\/p>\n<p>The Heat were just starting to jell at that point in the midst of winning 21 times in 22 games, and they should be making their push for the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoff race right now.\u00a0 Instead, chemistry issues have plagued the supposed dream team of James, Wade and Bosh lately and led to their longest skid of the season.\u00a0 They have failed to cover the spread in their last seven games.<\/p>\n<p>Questions regarding who should take the last shot of the game have made it clear that James and Wade are more the same type of player than they are complimentary pieces to a championship puzzle while Bosh is just trying to fit into the offense somehow.\u00a0 Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra has quite the challenge ahead of him as his team tries to finish strong, starting with this key game against the Lakers.<\/p>\n<p>Los Angeles head coach Phil Jackson is enjoying his final ride on the bench and see his team peaking at the perfect time.\u00a0 The Lakers have played with a vengeance since they dropped three games in a row prior to the All-Star break, including bad losses at Charlotte and Cleveland by a combined 25 points.<\/p>\n<p>Kobe Bryant has scored 20 points or more in seven of the eight games during the winning streak, with LA going 7-1 against the spread in those games.\u00a0 Bryant tweaked his ankle in a 101-87 win at Atlanta on Tuesday but still scored 26 points as his team failed to give up more than 87 points for the fifth straight games.\u00a0 In fact, the Lakers have allowed just one opponent to total more than 95 points since the All-Star break, limiting the rest to an average of 85 points.\u00a0 The UNDER has cashed in four of their last five games.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/offshoreinsiders.com\/index.php?PageID=140\">Top expert pick<\/a> on this game: The Great One Stevie Vincent has five fantastic winners and of course if he adds more after matchups are determined, they are inclusive. The top angle in each game is a combined 65-4. Of course, every angle is unlocked inside the play. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.offshoreinsiders.com\/index.php?Page=Packages\">Click now to purchase<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OffshoreInsiders.com Senior Writer Vegas Matty previews Los Angeles Lakers at Miami Heat. The Miami Heat (43-21) made a serious statement the last time they faced the Los Angeles Lakers (46-19) on Christmas Day.\u00a0 On Thursday before another national television audience, the struggling Heat will simply be trying to end their own five-game losing streak along &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2011\/03\/lakers-vs-heat-nba-on-tnt-odds-picks-predictions\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Lakers vs. Heat NBA on TNT Odds, Picks, Predictions<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports_betting_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10670"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10672,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10670\/revisions\/10672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}