Miami Heat vs. Los Angeles Lakers Preview
Where: Staples Center — Los Angeles, CA
When: Friday, January 6, 2017 – 10:30 PM ET
Line: Miami Heat vs. Los Angeles Lakers– view all NBA lines
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Betting on the Miami Heat (11-26)
The injury bug is biting the Heat really hard. With injuries to literally everyone in their rotation, they’ve collectively missed countless of games.
The most recent victim, other than Justise Winslow (shoulder), who’s now out for the remainder of the season, is Hassan Whiteside (eye), although there is a chance that he could be back for Friday’s matchup. Nonetheless, it’s good that their best playmaker and scorer, Goran Dragic, is healthy. The veteran guard is pacing the team in scoring and assists (19 PPG, 6.8 APG).
Should Whiteside sit out, the Heat should still have plenty of contributors outside Dragic, with six other players averaging in double figures. Tyler Johnson, who only comes off the bench, is one of the most notable, and he’s in a good stretch. He’s putting up 17.9 points on 49-percent shooting in his last eight.
Despite those stats, though, keep in mind that this is not a “run and gun” team. It’s actually the complete opposite, as they prefer to have a slower game, which is evidenced into averaging one of the fewest team possessions per game overall. With that, of course, the Heat are way below in producing buckets. They are currently 29th in points (98.4) and and 27th in offensive efficiency.
The Heat are 6-13 on the road this season (11-8 ATS).
Betting on the Los Angeles Lakers (13-26)
The Lakers continued their free fall Thursday night, as they lost to the Blazers, 118-109. Since the start of December, they have now gone 3-16, which is really interesting if you are into late 90s and early 2000s wrestling, because Stone Cold Steve Austin made those numbers mean a good “ass whoopin’.”
All kidding and WWE fandom aside, the Lakers should be able to get the win this Friday. Like Miami, they too have a handful of guys that can score respectably at any given night, as their top five scorers average 13 or points per game this season.
Lou Williams had a stretch of 30-plus points a couple of weeks back, Nick Young has 45 threes in his last 10, Julius Randle has two triple-doubles this season, D’Angelo Russell is averaging 22.7 points in his last three, while Jordan Clarkson (14 PPG) is proving to be one of the best players off the bench.
Offensively, they have shown that they can be really good they’re on, but defensively they are dreadful. Along with giving up 110.3 PPG (28th overall), they also allow their opponents to have good ball movement, allowing a league-worst 25.2 APG.
The Lakers are 8-10 at home this season (8-9-1 ATS).
Writer’s Prediction
The Lakers win, 112-106.
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