Lakers vs. Heat Prediction: NBA Odds, Point Spread
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Jeremy Perry
They’ll be without both LeBron James and Anthony Davis, which is why they’re such a big underdog in this spot. However, they have won four out of their last six contests while the Heat just saw their four-game winning streak snapped by the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday. Which team will be able to pick up another win here?
NBA Point Spread and Betting Analysis
The Lakers are currently 0-5 ATS in their past five games when going up against a team with a winning straight up record. They are going to have a tough time breaking that spell here without their best two players against a strong Miami team.
Meanwhile, the Heat are 4-1 ATS in their last five games overall and have been looking stronger than ever after the trade deadline. Now that their team is finally getting healthy again, it will be hard to take them down.
Los Angeles Lakers
After dropping their first three games without LeBron, the team has since picked up their level of play. Though they haven’t been able to take down any of the top-tier teams, they are beating the lower-level squads and they need to do that to maintain a decent spot in the standings. The problem is that they’re also now missing Andre Drummond, who could plug a hole at center, and watched Montrezl Harrell get ejected early in the team’s last game. They’ll need Harrell in a big way on Thursday when they’ll be going up against Bam Adebayo in the paint.
If the Lakers hope to keep winning games without their two best players, they will need guys like Dennis Schroder, Talen Horton-Tucker and Marc Gasol to play at a much higher level. Otherwise, this could get out of hand early.
Miami Heat
The Heat have been a mixed bag this season. Every time it seems like they are stringing a few wins together, they start heading in the other direction. Health of their roster has been a big factor but they appear to be in great shape heading into this matchup.
The additions of Victor Oladipo, Nemanja Bjelica and Trevor Ariza at the trade deadline has also drastically improved their team depth. There is now much more forgiveness if either Jimmy Butler or Adebayo aren’t able to have good games and lead this team. Butler is known to be the heart and soul of the Heat, putting up 21.5 points, 7.4 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game. Oladipo is starting to get comfortable too as he had 16 in his latest outing. If Butler, Oladipo and Tyler Herro can figure out the team chemistry, this could again be a dangerous team in the East.
LAL
MIA