Thursday night will feature a battle of Eastern Conference foes as the Miami Heat (29-23) take on the New York Knicks (27-25). The Knicks will host this one at Madison Square Garden, with tipoff scheduled for 7:30 pm ET.
Miami is coming off of a win in their last game as they took down the Cleveland Cavaliers 100-97 on the road. In the win, Jimmy Butler had a game-high 23 points, while Caleb Martin, Bam Adebayo, and Tyler Herro all had 18 apiece.
For the Knicks, they have lost back-to-back games, including a 129-123 overtime loss at home to the Lakers on Tuesday. Jalen Brunson had a game-high 37 points for New York, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Lakers.
The Heat are slight favorites in this one despite playing on the road. They are -116 to win, while the Knicks’ moneyline sits at -102. The spread features New York as a one-point underdog (-110), and the over/under for total points is 213.5.
Heat Look To Improve On The Road, In The Conference
At 29-23, the Heat have had a solid season thus far and sit sixth in the Eastern Conference. Still, there are two glaring issues that the Heat have had: their road play and their conference play.
While they are 17-9 at home, they are just 12-14 on the road. Furthermore, they are under .500 against the Eastern Conference at just 13-14. As they look to make a run up the standings, both of these marks will have to improve.
While Miami has a solid record, they have struggled on the offensive side. They rank dead last in the league in scoring, averaging just 108.5 points per game.
Despite this low number, they have a trio of players averaging over 20 points per game in Tyler Herro (20.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.3 assists), Bam Abedayo (21.4 points, 10 rebounds, 3.1 assists), and Jimmy Butler (22 points, 6 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 2.1 steals).
Defensively, the team is considerably better. In fact, they rank second in the NBA in scoring defense, allowing opponents just 108.2 points per game.
Knicks Try To Shed Losing Streak
Having lost two in a row and six of the last 10, the New York Knicks know that they have to improve if they want to catch teams like the Heat in the standings. Unlike Miami, their issues have been more at home (12-14) than on the road (15-11). They will look to get back into the win column Monday and snap their modest losing streak.
While they are not at the same level of Miami, New York has played well on defense this season. They rank 12th overall, allowing opponents an average of 112.7 points per game (109.1 at home).
On offense, they also fall into the middle of the pack. They rank 15th in scoring, averaging 114.4 points per game.
The scoring is led by Julius Randle (24.7 points, 10.9 rebounds, 4.1 assists), Jalen Brunson (22.8 points, 3.5 rebounds, 6.2 assists), and RJ Barrett (20.1 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists).
Take Miami To Win And Cover
Looking at the trends, Miami is 4-2 over their last six games, but they are just 2-4 against the spread in that time. Against the Knicks, they are 8-3 against the spread in their last 11 games.
As for New York, they are just 2-6 both straight up and against the spread in their last eight games. They are also 3-8 against the spread in their last 11 home games.
In what is essentially a pick’em game, there are avenues to both winning this contest. Still, the Knicks have really struggled as of late, especially at home, making them a tell bet. For that reason, take Miami as the road favorites to both win and cover the one-point spread (-110).
