NBA Betting Picks: Detroit Pistons at Miami Heat
With pro football done for the year we can turn our full attention to the daily sports of basketball and hockey for the next month until baseball begins. On the docket for Monday night is an Eastern Conference battle in the NBA between the Detroit Pistons and Miami Heat. Miami is, of course, the defending NBA Champions and are currently in 2nd place in the East three games back of the Indiana Pacers. The Pistons may be better than they have been in recent years-not that that’s saying much given their struggles of the past few seasons. Detroit is just 1/2 game out of playoff qualification in the weak Eastern Conference and with only the top two teams in the East playing particularly well this season making the postseason is a legitimate possibility for the long suffering Pistons.
Detroit’s biggest problem is defense-they rank in the lower tier of team defense in the NBA. That’s not really the way they want to play basketball but the problem on the offensive end is that they’re still probably a scorer or two away from being able to play the up tempo style of basketball they’d like. Miami can play defense as well as any team in the league when they’re motivated but that’s hard to count on on a game in game out basis-at least until the playoffs begin.
Miami is clearly the better team in this matchup but given the size of this pointspread that’s far from being the most salient consideration in this handicap. The Heat have underachieved against the pointspread at home this season going 8-15 ATS despite a 19-4 SU record. That suggests that they ‘play down’ to their level of opposition on most nights and with Detroit getting a full 10 points here there are plenty of ways in which the Heat can win but not cover this game. This is Miami’s first game back after a road trip and are coming off a fairly high profile game in New York on Saturday night. Hard to see the Heat giving the Pistons their best shot which should allow Detroit to stay inside the number.
BET DETROIT PISTONS +10 OVER MIAMI HEAT