Pacers vs. Heat Point Spread at Miami -6
Carrie Stroup here and we have a great one for you with arch rivals the Indiana Pacers taking on the Miami Heat. The point spread in this game is Miami -6 with a total of 182. Place your 1st bet at Sportsbook.com here and receive your 2nd bet for FREE.
INDIANA PACERS (54-25) at MIAMI HEAT (53-25)
The Pacers head to South Beach on Friday night to battle the injury-riddled Heat for the Eastern Conference’s number one seed.
Miami will once again be missing SG Dwyane Wade (hamstring), and three frontcourt players are questionable with injuries -- C Greg Oden (back) and PFs Udonis Haslem (virus) and Chris Andersen (knee). The team is just 18-10 SU (.643) without Wade this season, compared to 36-15 SU (.706) when the star guard is on the court. Indiana rested all of its starters on Wednesday and still defeated the lowly Bucks 104-102. That snapped a nine-game ATS losing skid where the team was just 2-7 SU. Luckily for the Pacers, they have remained one-half game ahead of the Heat, who have dropped three of their past four contests (1-2-1 ATS), including a 107-102 defeat in Memphis on Wednesday. The home team has prevailed in all three meetings this season by a combined 10 points. The most recent meeting on March 26 was the closest, as Indiana eked out an 84-83 win at home, failing to cover the small 1.5-point spread. Miami holds a 13-10 SU advantage (11-12 ATS), in this series over the past three seasons, but is a dominant 9-2 SU (6-5 ATS) at home during this timeframe. The Pacers are 26-14 ATS (65%) after 2+ consecutive overs in the past two seasons, but are a dreadful 1-15 ATS this season after failing to cover 6 or 7 of their previous eight games.
The Pacers have really struggled as of late, but fortunately they still find themselves in a position to capture the Eastern Conference’s top seed. Every one of the Pacers starters sat out in the 104-102 win over the Bucks on Wednesday with PF Luis Scola (7.5 PPG, 4.8 RPG) leading the team to a victory with 24 points and nine assists. He should still be a big contributor off the bench with the starters back. However, Indiana will go nowhere if C Roy Hibbert (11.1 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 2.3 BPG) doesn’t get back on track. Over the past four games, Hibbert is averaging just 9.5 PPG (34% FG) and 3.0 RPG, and was benched in the Pacers loss to the Hawks on Sunday. His offense has been strong in the season series versus Miami with 17.0 PPG on 58% FG, but he has pulled down a mere 3.7 RPG in the three games. SF Paul George (21.7 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 3.5 APG, 1.9 SPG) has averaged 21.7 PPG, 6.3 RPG and 4.7 APG in the season series, but has shot just 43.5% FG. George has also shot poorly for the Pacers recently with only 18 points (6-of-17 FG) in Sunday's loss to the Hawks, and he just hasn’t looked right since the beginning of February. George will need to be on his game Friday night as he will likely see plenty of time matched up with LeBron James. PF David West (13.8 PPG, 6.8 RPG) is averaging 14.0 PPG and 7.3 RPG over the past four games and has been even better versus Miami this season with 17.7 PPG (50% FG), 7.0 RPG and 3.7 APG. He has been the most consistent player for the Pacers all season, and he will need to continue to overpower Chris Bosh in the paint on Friday.
The Heat are coming off of a tough loss to the Grizzlies on Wednesday night. SF LeBron James (27.0 PPG, 6.9 RPG, 6.4 APG) did everything he could to will his team to a victory, finishing with 37 points, six rebounds and five assists, but it just wasn’t enough as he ultimately did not get enough help from his supporting cast. Despite the Pacers ranking second in the NBA in scoring defense (92.3 PPG allowed), James has destroyed them this season with 26.3 PPG (51% FG), 10.3 RPG and 6.0 APG. Miami will need PF Chris Bosh (16.4 PPG, 6.7 RPG) to contribute more than his 11.7 PPG (42% FG) and 5.0 RPG that he's averaged versus the Pacers this season. Bosh will need to play a lot better than he has been if the Heat are not only going to win this game, but more importantly get back to the NBA championship. Bosh is averaging just 12.5 PPG (41% FG) and 6.0 RPG over the past two games despite being the team’s number two option with SG Dwyane Wade (19.2 PPG, 4.8 APG, 4.6 RPG) out. With Wade missing another game, PG Mario Chalmers (9.8 PPG, 4.9 APG) will need to be much more aggressive at getting his own shot. Chalmers had 12 points in the loss to Memphis and is averaging 14.4 PPG (53% FG, 47% threes) over the past five contests. But he has been horrible offensively versus Indiana this season with 6.0 PPG on 27% FG. Miami could also use more scoring from SG Ray Allen (9.6 PPG), who is averaging just 6.0 PPG (4-of-9 FG) over the past two contests despite Wade being injured. Allen has averaged just 5.0 PPG (27% FG) in two games against the Pacers this season and a lot of that has to do with the Pacers’ tremendous ability to close out on shooters.
- Carrie Stroup, Gambling911.com Senior Reporter
