NBA Free Picks and Vegas Odds: Miami Heat at Indiana Pacers NBA Expert Predictions: MVP LeBron James will lead the Miami Heat on the road to the Conseco Fieldhouse to take on the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night at 7:00 PM ET on NBA TV. The Pacers enter the game on a 3 game winning streak and in the 8th spot for the playoffs in the East at 24-28 – good for 2nd in the Central. The Heat are coming off a loss to the Boston Celtics leaving them at 0-3 against them for the season and ending an 8 game winning streak and falling behind them for the No. 1 spot in the Eastern Conference at 39-15 – still 1st in the Southeast.
Interim head coach Frank Vogel has the Pacers playing better winning 7 of 8 since he took over only losing at the Heat last week and averaging 10 more points per game. ”Honestly, I just think we started playing toward our strengths,” Pacer Danny Granger said of Vogel’s emphasis. ”Whereas before, we kind of just tried to mold everybody into the system that we had. Now, we play inside-out. We’ve got a really quick point guard, so we play up-tempo. We space people out because we have a lot of good shooters. We’re just playing to the strengths that we have with this team.” The odds makers at Bodog have the Miami Heat a -4 1/2 point favorite on the road against the Indiana Pacers.
The Heat are coming off a 85-82 loss on the road to the Celtics and are 26-27-1 ATS for the season. Chris Bosh led the scoring with 24 points as well as 10 boards while LeBron chipped in 22 points 7 rebounds and 7 assists. “We definitely dug ourselves a hole,” James said. “We can’t expect to come into Boston and turn the ball over 12 times in the first half. We also can’t afford to come in the third quarter and not have our motor going and let them go on a 20-3 run to start the quarter. I feel 10 times out of 10 you’re going to lose those games.” Vegas odds makers have the Miami Heat +140 odds to win the 2011 NBA Championship.
The Pacers winning streak continued 103-97 recently over the Bucks on the road to move to a tidy 25-24-3 ATS for the season. Granger led the Pacers with 30 points and 4 boards while point guard Darren Collison chipped in 22 points in the victory. The total has gone OVER in 4 of last 5 games. Vegas odds makers have the over/under NBA betting odds for the total score at 206 1/2 points combined of the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers.
NBA Free Picks: Miami -5
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