Bobcats vs Heat NBA Handicapping
Yes, they have the best record in the Eastern Conference. Yes, everyone who they have to have healthy to win is healthy.
Charlotte Bobcats (11-35) at Miami Heat (30-14)
Monday, Feb. 4
American Airlines Arena, Miami
7:30 p.m. EST
Spread – Heat -13.5 at SportsBettingOnline.ag
O/U – 200
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Yes, it’s unrealistic to expect the Miami Heat to play with great intensity for 48 minutes of every game on the 82-game NBA schedule.
But it looks like we’ll have to wait until the playoffs to find out if the Heat have the goods again to get out of the East and go toe to toe with whatever team survives what will be a ferocious Western Conference playoffs.
Miami played just as hard as needed on Sunday afternoon in Toronto, trailing the disorganized Raptors at the half by six points before surprising no one by applying enough defensive pressure in ther second half to win.
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Toronto scored just 35 combined in the third and fourth periods, and the Heat had the win that they figured to get, using the minimum effort needed.
The next course will be the Charlotte Bobcats, tonight in Miami, where the Heat have lost only three times this season. The Bobcats have lost five of six, and since an early-season surge have settled into their role as worst team in the Association.
The NBA is a cold and lonely place when you rank 28th in total offense and 29th in total defense. [ad-6571516]
The Bobcats are getting decent production from PG Kemba Walker, who has scored in double digits in 17 games. But as Rick Pitino was fond of saying, on bad teams somebody has to shoot, and it might as well be Walker.
Charlotte needs all hands on deck to have a shot in Miami, but the Cats will be without rookie forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who will be in street clothes as he deals with a concussion suffered Saturday night against Houston.
Miami, meanwhile, represents just about everything the Bobcats are trying to become. The Heat can probably sleepwalk through three-plus periods tonight and get it done with 8 or 9 minutes of suffocating defense.
That, unfortunately, is life in the zero-sum NBA regular season – where stars rules and bad teams like Charlotte are still a few lottery selections and free agent signings away from the bright lights.
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You’d think that the Bobcats would be a halfway decent cover team considering the boatload of points they carry into games against good teams, but they’re just 17-28-1 ATS this season and pretty much a .500 team ATS when they get double digit points.
Miami, meanwhile, enjoys preening for the home crowd against bad teams and has failed to cover 10 or more at home only a few times this season. But the Heat may try to monitor minutes as they get deep into a stretch of 6 games in nine days.
That, plus the Heat’s tendency to give only what’s needed to win, adds up to a BOBCATS cover.
