Heat’s Rally Shows They Are The Clear Favorites

We all know that the Miami Heat are a good basketball team.  Sure, they have their detractors and have been called overrated, but the Heat’s latest game shows why they are the clear favorites to win the NBA Championship again.

The odds are pretty close for the top three playoff teams:

Miami Heat  - 1/1 

San Antonio Spurs - 2/1 

Oklahoma City Thunder - 5/1 

Indiana Pacers - 12/1 

Los Angeles Clippers - 14/1 

Washington Wizards - 50/1

-Courtesy of Bovada

What clearly separates the Heat from the rest of the pack, even the San Antonio Spurs, is their ability to come together and win when it matters or when it seems as though it is hopeless.

Last night, Miami eliminated the Brooklyn Nets from the playoffs. They won the game 96-94 to make it to the Conference Championships. The score does not tell the whole story.

The game was the Nets to win. They put together run after run and led the Heat nearly the entire game. Some nice free throw shooting and a slow but strategic attack from the Heat saw them rally back to win. It is that type of performance that makes the Heat the clear favorites to win it all again this year.

Often criticized during the regular season as being lazy, the Heat took some big-time unnecessary losses, but Miami has illustrated that there are two different Heat teams, regular-season Heat and the playoff Heat. This team is in full-blown playoff mode.

And who can realistically stop them?

If the Indiana Pacers survive their series with the Washington Wizards, can they stop Miami? Not if they continue to playing with the unreliability they have been in the past couple months. The Wizards are not going to stop the Heat either. Over at Boavada the Heat are the 1/4 favorites to win the Eastern Conference Championships, compare that to the next best odds of the Pacers at 13/4.

The Oklahoma City Thunder or San Antonio Spurs are the ones likely to meet the Heat in the finals and will give the Heat a run for their money, but when the Big 3 are all clicking they are virtually unbeatable, according to ESPN stats anyway:

Heat are 13-0 in playoffs when the Big 3 all play and combine for 70 or more points.

Combine all these factors and it is clear that the NBA Championship crown is the Heat’s to lose.