NBA Betting May 13, 2021 – Philadelphia 76ers at Miami Heat
The battle for the top spot in the Eastern Conference will come down to the final week of the regular season with the Philadelphia 76ers holding the upperhand. The Sixers enter Thursday’s game against the Miami Heat ahead of Brooklyn and Milwaukee and in control of their own destiny. And with their last two games against Orlando securing the top seed seems like just a formality. With teams below them struggling, the Heat secured a top-six, thus avoiding the play-in tournament. It’s all about seeding now with Miami chasing down Atlanta for the fourth spot. Bookmaker.eu offers a generous welcome bonus (max bonus $1600).
Philadelphia 76ers at Miami Heat
Date and Time: Thursday, May 13, 2021, 7:30 p.m. ET
Location: American Airlines Arena, Miami, FL
Opening NBA Odds: PICK'EM/218.5
76ers at Heat TV Coverage: TNT
Odds Analysis
The Heat certainly helped themselves with a two-game sweep of the Celtics clinching a spot in the top-six. They have won three straight and six of seven going 5-1-1 ATS entering Thursday’s tilt. And it’s a good thing they took care of business before facing the Sixers. Miami dropped the first two of the season series in consecutive games back in January allowing 125 and 137 points in the setbacks. The teams cashed the OVER both times while exceeding the closing total in each of the last five encounters. At 38-31 SU and 32-35-2 ATS the Heat have chance to climb into the fourth position trailing the Hawks by just a half-game in the standings.
While they haven’t clinched the top seed the Sixers are on their way thanks to a recent eight-game winning streak, their longest of the season. Going 6-2 ATS on that heater allowed Philly to maintain its advantage over Brooklyn and Milwaukee. With a chance to clinch the top spot, the Sixers had their streak stopped by Indiana, 103-94, last time out. They can secure the top seed with a win over Miami in their last road game of the season. The Sixers are 20-15 SU and 16-16-3 ATS on the road this season. They’ve won three in a row at Miami going 2-1 ATS.
Philadelphia 76ers
For a team that was playing so well the second half collapse at Indiana was surprising. Maybe they were due to have a bad half and they did in the 103-94 setback. It didn’t help that MVP candidate Joel Embiid didn’t play due to a non-COVID illness, but the Sixers scored just 32 second half points squandering an 11-point halftime lead. In fact, the Sixers scored more points in the first quarter of that game than they did in the entire second half. “It’s rare that I would say this was an offensive loss, bit I thought this was an offensive loss,” Doc Rivers said after the game.
During their eight-game winning streak the Sixers eclipsed the 120-point plateau in half of them and scored at least 106 points in every game. They have been better than average offensively most of the season averaging 113.6 points while shooting 47.6 percent from the field as a team. Getting Embiid back on the floor will be a boost. He averages 29.2 points and scored 45 with 16 rebounds in Philly’s 137-134 win on Jan. 12. Ben Simmons went off for a triple-double the next game with 10 points, 10 assists and 12 boards as the Sixers completed the sweep with a 125-108 win.
Miami Heat
Those losses in Philadelphia in January were not a true indicator of the current Heat. The team was ravaged by COVID at the time playing without Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic. They needed 21 points from Gabe Vincent just to reach triple-digits. Miami is back to being close to full strength and it helped them secure a spot in the top six. They will be without Victor Oladipo for the rest of the season, but that’s not a significant loss since he played just five games since being acquired at the deadline.
In their sweep of Boston the Heat showed off the balanced attack that carried them to the Eastern Conference championship over Boston last season inside the Florida bubble. Three players scored more than 20 points and six reached double figures. Tyler Herro hit 10 of 15 shots for 24 points with Duncan Robinson and Adebayo going for 22. Everyone picked up the pace after Jimmy Butler took a shot to the eye and sat out the second half. “That’s who we are when we’re at our best. The more weapons we have, we’re a more viable team,” Erik Spoelstra said.
Bet 76ers at Heat at BookMaker.eu
The Heat have won 10 of their last 13 games getting it done on both ends of the floor. They had a G League roster when the clubs met in January so take those results with a little skepticism. Butler is likely to play on Thursday and Miami has looked a lot like the club that made it to the Finals last season. With a chance at securing a seat in the top four the Heat will definitely go for it.
NBA Score Prediction: Heat 115, 76ers 111
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- Phil Simon, Gambling911.com
