NBA Playoff Update: Heat no Longer a Lock
Miami comes in tonight
For the last couple of weeks, while we have all been focused on college basketball. While this NCAA Tournament has been very exciting with all the upsets and close games, we are missing out on a very interesting story in the race for the NBA Playoffs. The two time NBA Champion Miami Heat is tanking. They are only 5-7 in their last 12 games. In those games they have lost to such teams as the New Orleans Pelicans by 10 points, the Boston Celtics 101-96, the Denver Nuggets 111-107, all of who are under .500. They lost 111-87 to the San Antonio Spurs and 99-85 to the Chicago Bulls.
Meanwhile the team they have been chasing for most of the season for the top spot in the NBA Eastern Conference, the Indiana Pacers, have also been struggling and are still only a game up on Miami in the loss column going into tonight’s head-to-head meeting. So how do you look at the last 12 games if you are a Heat player or fan? Are you feeling good that you haven’t done well and you still have a shot to get the top seed? Or are you upset that you have not taken advantage of the Pacers struggles? That may depend on the outcome of tonight’s game.
The hottest team, oddly enough, in the East has been the New York Knicks who have won eight of ten despite last night’s clunker at the Los Angeles Lakers. Despite a dismal 29-42 record and a losing season already clinched, they are only three games behind the Atlanta Hawks for the eighth spot. The loss to a 24 win Lakers team hurts.
In the Western Conference, the Spurs just keep rolling along. At 54-16 they have the vest record in the NBA and have the longest winning streak in the league at 14 straight wins. The casual NBA fan or the fan who has been concentrating on college ball for the last month might be surprised by this. As usual, the Spurs accomplishments have flown under the radar. But the team most wrote off after last year’s loss to the Heat in a fantastic seven game series as too old, is back looking like a real title contender again.
Another team to watch for is the Los Angeles Clippers who have won nine of ten. At 50-21, the Clippers are only 2.0 games behind the Oklahoma City Thunder for the second spot in the West. The Clippers are at the Pelicans tonight as they begin a five game road swing through the Dallas Mavericks, the Rockets, the Minnesota Timberwolves and Phoenix Suns.
Carbon Sports has odds on tonight’s NBA games including:
Miami at Indiana– Miami is +1.5 -110 and Indiana is -1.5 -110 ATS. Moneyline is Miami +105 and Indiana is -125. We like the Pacers -1.5 -110 at home to beat the Heat tonight. This will be a very interesting game just to see how the loser moves forward from here.
L. A. Clippers at New Orleans– The Clippers are -7 -110 and the Pelicans are +7 -110 ATS> Moneyline is L. A. -300 and New Orleans +250. We are going to go with the Clippers -7 -110.
New York at Sacramento- This game is a pick’em with both teams -110. We are going to take the Knicks as they need this one worse.
