Joe Gavazzi
Miami Heat -3.5
The Brooklyn/Boston Nets, with Celtics KG, Pierce and Terry joining D. Will and Kirilenko, proved they have a way to go before reaching their potential. Cleveland beat them at crunch time 98-94 on Wednesday night. Two-time defending champ Miami Heat certainly showed far more cohesion in a 31-5 blitz of Chicago in the opening night 107-95 victory. It was a Miami statement game, on Ring Night, against one of their biggest challengers in the East. But in the inevitable ebb and flow of the NBA, the Heat fell flat on their face Wednesday night losing 114-110 to the Sixers, a team who will challenge Charlotte for the depths of the Eastern Conference. With former Celtics kindling the competitive fire of the Heat, and motivated by the embarrassing loss to Philly Wednesday night, look for an all-out effort by Miami resulting in a double digit victory on ESPN. Heat make another statement against a potential challenger.
OC Dooley
Heat -3.5
The situation for visiting Miami is radically different than at this time one year ago when the New York/New Jersey area was recovering from a hurricane that caused massive amounts of damage. One year ago in the first game played in New York following Hurricane Sandy not only did Miami fail to cover the spread inside famed Madison Square Garden they were trounced by a 104-84 final count. Thus the two-time defending league champions are in a “double revenge” situation this evening as once again they visit the Big Apple. Even though they are not facing the Knicks this time around, the Heat still have a rivalry situation with a new Brooklyn roster headed by a pair of former Boston starts Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. The problem for the Nets is that it is going to take some time to gel as a unit with both new personnel and a MISSING head coach as Jason Kidd (DUI) is still serving a two-game suspension. Miami got off to a rousing start back on Tuesday covering the spread against another rival (Chicago) but that all came crashing down a night later on the road with a stunning loss versus arguably the worst team in the league (Philadelphia). Thus LeBron and company enter tonight’s game in a poor mood which is bad news for Brooklyn who in the series against Miami has lost 13 in a row, while “failing” to cover the spread 5 times in the most recent six meetings