NBA Picks Heat vs Lakers

Tip-off: 8:00 pm est.

The Los Angeles Lakers travel to Miami to take on the Heat in a game that could be much closer from a sports betting point-of-view than a lot of people might think. The Lakers haven’t been covering against the spread lately after starting out the season going 6 and 1. They are still the top team in the Western Conference, but things haven’t been going as well for them as it has looked on paper. They barely escaped against the New York Knicks the other night at home. Now, they have to take on the heat. For NBA betting fans, the Lakers may not be the studly against the BetOnline online betting spread squad that everybody expects going 11 and 13 against the spread but they are still 21 and 3 straight-up.

The Miami Heat have been much better this season than last season. Basketball betting fans will note that last season the Heat were barely bettable after racking up a terrible record against the spread. This season Miami has been good with a healthy Dwayne Wade in the line-up, going 12 and 12 straight-up, but their record against the spread hasn’t improved at all as they are 8-15-1 on the season.

Here are my personal online betting lines for this game:

Los Angeles Lakers – 5 ½ – 110 – 200 O 192 ½

Miami Heat + 5 ½ – 110 + 420 U 192 ½

Here are a few online wagering trends that might help us find a good online bet in this game:

The Los Angeles Lakers are 0 and 7 against the spread in their last 7 games overall

The Over is 4 and 1 in the Los Angeles Lakers last 5 games overall.

The Miami Heat are 0 and 5 against the spread in their last 5 games overall.

The Over is 5 and 2 in the Miami Heat’s last 7 home games.

The big question is whether or not the Lakers will win this game straight-up after getting oh so close to losing in roughly 7 straight games. L.A. hasn’t been dominant but they’ve been getting the job done.

The Miami Heat needs to get things together. Playing .500 ball at this point in the season isn’t a disaster but the Heat has to much talent on the bench to be playing .500 ball. This team is better than that.

The BetOnline online sportsbook should be releasing online odds soon. Even though the Lakers might have to play without Pau Gasol, they should still be the favorites in the BetOnline online sportsbook. Their gaudy straight-up record pretty much requires them to be the favorite.

I’m not going to get too fancy here. To me the Lakers have been teetering on a loss. Both teams are terrible against the spread and I don’t know how many points the Heat or Lakers are likely to score tonight since Gasol might not be in the line-up.

I’m taking the Heat on the BetOnline online betting money-line. No matter how the online odds end up, the Heat will be the underdogs. That’s the team I’m going with. I’ll be making an online bet on the Miami Heat to beat the Los Angeles Lakers straight-up.