The NBA champions Golden State Warriors will pay a visit to the southern tip of Florida to play the Miami Heat after enjoying their stay in the northern part when they trounced Orlando. The Heat will look to avoid the same fate, but it won’t be easy without Whiteside to anchor their defense.
Warriors at Heat
Spread: Golden State -10.5 (-110) at BetDSI Sportsbook
Total: over/under 218.5 points (-110)
Hot-shooting Warriors rout Magic in Orlando
Having players in and out of the lineup disrupted the Golden State Warriors rhythm over the past week or so, yet it only took one defensively lazy team for an opponent to have them back at their top level. The Warriors hit 78 first-half points on Orlando and the game was never in question afterward, as they won 133-112 on Friday night.
The Magic shot 51 percent in the first half, but they never led as the Warriors did as they pleased. The Warriors hit 12 of their first 16 shots from the field and scored with such ease that their success seemed fantastic at times. Stephen Curry (9-of-20, 23 points, 10 assists), Kevin Durant (10-of-14, 25 points, 7 assists), Draymond Green (5-of-8, 12 points, 10 assists), Klay Thompson (11-of-14, 27 points, 5 assists), and their teammates, made 62.5 percent of their shots – including 50 percent on threes, recorded an NBA season-high 46 assists and encountered too little resistance at the rim. Golden State withstood a strong shooting performance by Aaron Gordon and Evan Fournier but limited the Magic to 46 percent of their shots and 11 threes. Turnovers were again an issue – after giving up 23 balls to the Lakers, they had 19 miscues in this one, but won the rebounding battle and had a 70-58 advantage on points in the paint.
Iguodala sat out the last game with a sore left knee and his status for Sunday’s game against the Heat is uncertain. It may turn out that he was rested, but in case there’s some lingering issue, the Warriors can afford to let him rest another one. This is the front game of a back-to-back set that will send the Warriors to Louisiana on Monday, so Kerr could decide to sit out any player in either of the contests.
Place: AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami, Florida
Date/Time: Sunday, December 3rd, 2017. 7:00 PM ET
TV Coverage: FS Sun, NBCSBA, Sportsnet One
The Heat win a tight one over Charlotte after another slow start
The Heat coaches and trainer made a conscious decision not to play Whiteside now, hoping to help his knees health for a period of the season when it will matter. They did it knowing that it could lead to more losses now, but for some reason, the other Heat players took it a little too literally. Against the Knicks, and in first seven minutes of a 105-100 victory over equally shorthanded Hornets, the Miami Heat couldn’t wake up from a bad dream.
The Heat missed their first 12 shots before Richardson finally ended the scoring drought that had left the Heat with some extra work to do. The Heat had some bad game openings, and with a listless performance in New York in the previous game, they could’ve just laid an egg again, but they dug deeper and found some energy on the bench to overcome the 1-16 opening deficit. They’ve cut it to half by the quarter’s end and erased it completely in the second behind Wayne Ellington’s hot shooting from the deep. He has hit four 3-pointers in quick succession to give his team offensive boost when needed. He would only score 2 more points the rest of the way, but Richardson was ready to take over. Miami wing connected on 11-of-14 field goal attempts to score 27 points, a team-high by a wide margin. His jumper with 46 seconds left capped the late 9-0 run that had essentially won the game for the Heat by putting them in front 104-96. Charlotte were without Walker, and are bad in the clutch even with him, but it doesn’t take away from the Heat victory.
After sitting out the last two games with a pre-game questionable status, Hassan Whiteside is now expected to be out of action for the next one-to-two weeks as he will begin rehabilitation for a left knee bone bruise. At least we know his status for next few games. The rest of the rotation is ready to go.
Golden State Warriors at Miami Heat Game Trends & Prediction
The Golden State Warriors are 17-6 straight up, but it only translated to a 10-13 ATS overall record. Even with the cover in the last game, they are just 5-7 on the road. With third consecutive over, the Warriors improved to 13-10 against the over/under, and 7-5 away from home, but look for the books to slam that trend real soon, as aggressively as they have been trying to fade any value on the Warriors handicap betting.
Miami finally delivered at home, barely, but it’s still better than before. They’ve gone 2-6-2 ATS at home this season and 8-12-2 overall. They haven’t been too successful against the Warriors either – in Miami, the Heat are just 2-6-1 ATS against this opponent. Miami is mostly an under team, going 8-14 compared to the set total points lines overall, but have a good balance at home with 5-5 O/U record. They’ve played five straight games in which they’ve failed to reach the expected total.
Admi-Rank: The Heat are losing a bit of their surge as they’ve exited a tough period limping. The last game was important in slowing down the decline, but they are currently battling to stay average. The Warriors were able to sustain any crisis so far, keeping their rank incredibly high for a few seasons already, so it’s no wonder that they enter this (and almost any) contest as a heavy favorite to win it.
The slow start in this game would also mean a quick ending for any chance of Miami threatening the Warriors. They’ve only scored 80 points on them in Oakland, so there’ll surely be periods when the shots aren’t dropping, but they simply can afford to go scoreless over 5 or 7 minutes like they’ve had a habit to do recently. On the bright side, Whiteside’s absence won’t hurt them that much in this game – he played terribly in the last meeting between the two and lasted just 16 minutes on the court. Of course, it will hurt their defense in a similar fashion like it did in the last two games.
The Warriors are, of course, a double-digit favorite. The handicap has been set at 10.5 points at the opening of the market, which is a kind of a mid solution. If they would play with a full squad here, it would be fair to have at least 12 points of difference, but then again, it’s likely that someone will sit out, so the books are playing it smart. At this point, there isn’t anything I would go after on the spread, but an early bet is guaranteed with the total points. The projected line is at 218.5, which a number that would be solid if Whiteside and Iguodala would play, and play prominent roles. I believe the books are shading value on the under side to protect themselves from those who will follow Miami trend, and as the window on Warriors over is going to close quickly, this could be last opportunity to go after it in the next few weeks.
My Pick: (no wager on the spread currently)
Total: Over 218.5 points (-110)
