Miami Heat at Oklahoma City Thunder Betting Preview

Opening Line: Heat +4 / Thunder -4 O/U 193

Time: 8 PM EST Saturday January 16, 2010

Tonight in the nation's heartland the Oklahoma City Thunder host the Miami Heat. The Thunder have lost 2 in a row, are 6-4 in their last 10 games, and are in 4th place in the Northwest Division 4 games back of the Denver Nuggets. The Heat have won 2 in a row, are only 4-6 in their last 10 games, and are in 3rd place in the Southeast Division 5.5 games back of the Atlanta Hawks.

This season the Thunder are 11-9 at home and 23-16 ATS and the Heat are 9-8 on the road and 19-19 ATS.

In their last game the Thunder lost to the Dallas Mavericks 99-98 last night while the Heat beat the Houston Rockets 115-106 also last night.

Heat star Dwayne Wade has an injured wrist, but that has actually helped his mechanics, which he recently stated, as he is averaging 30.4 ppg on 51.4% shooing in his last 8 games.

In the Heat's last 2 games they have been on fire, get it Heat on fire, as they have shot 53.6% and 56% from the field respectively.

The Thunder have lost 4 of their last 7 games by a combined 13 points and Oklahoma City needs to find out how to win close games, especially since they are looking like a playoff team.

The Heat need to play solid inside-outside defense against the trio of PG Russell Westbrook (16.5 ppg), PF Jeff Green (14 ppg), and SF Kevin Durant (28.9 ppg). Durant has been playing great lately averaging 33.8 ppg in his last 4 games.

Miami only ranks 24th in scoring this season (97.7 ppg) and they will have to find out a way to score on a solid Oklahoma City defense that ranks 7th in the league in points allowed this season (96.5 ppg).

The Thunder have to try to keep Dwayne Wade (27.1 ppg) and Michael Beasley (16 ppg) from slashing to the hoop and scoring. They need to make these guys settle for outside jumpers and not give them easy buckets in the paint.

Oklahoma City is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games as a home favorite, 6-1-1 ATS in their last 8 against teams in the Southeast Division, and 9-19 ATS in their last 28 games following an ATS win. Miami is 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games as a road underdog of 0.5-4.5, and 4-1 ATS in their last 5 after allowing 100 points or more in their previous game.


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Dallas Mavericks at Miami Heat Odds 6-12
The Mavs are up 3-2 in this series heading to South Beach and for the Heat to force Game 7 they will have to play better in the 4th quarter, especially LeBron James. 5Dimes has the hometown Heat as 5-point favorites in Game 6 with a total of 187.

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