NBA Live Betting: Heat-Spurs Could Be Another Finals Preview or End of Rivalry
by Bovada Sportsbook Staff | March 3, 2014
The NBA’s 82-game regular season is a drag at points. With so many games, it’s natural for some players to take a few nights off a season mentally even if they are actually on the court. Thus you will see some bad basketball – watch a Milwaukee or Philadelphia game right now, for example.
That said, certainly one of the most anticipated games of the regular season and must-see TV is Thursday night’s TNT national television opener between the Heat and Spurs in San Antonio. There will be Live Betting at Bovada.
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It’s a rematch of last season’s terrific NBA Finals and could be a preview of this June’s. On the other hand, it could also be the last time we see Miami’s Big 3 of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh face off against San Antonio’s future Hall of Fame trio of Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili.
Both the Heat and Spurs enter this week second in their respective conferences. Miami is the favorite at 10/13 to win the East though. San Antonio (1.5 games behind West No. 1 Oklahoma City) has 17/4 odds to win the West.
Miami is No. 1 with 21/10 odds to win the championship, while the Spurs are No. 4 with 10/1. The 2013 Finals were only the third this century to go to a Game 7, won of course by the Heat (the only time a team who won consecutive games in the series). That they even reached a Game 7 in south Florida took a minor miracle for Miami.
San Antonio led by 13 points late in the third quarter and was up five with 28 seconds left in regulation before Miami turned things around. The Heat won 103-100 in overtime with LeBron putting up a triple-double of 32 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds. He also had the go-ahead basket with 1:43 left in OT. James’ triple-double was only the sixth in an NBA Finals elimination game in history.
So why could Thursday’s game be the last meeting of the Big 3s? James and Bosh can opt out of their contracts after this season and will likely as they both took a little less to form the super-team in Miami with Wade, who can also opt out but likely won’t because of his age. It’s certainly possible that James and Bosh re-up with Miami. It would be tough for either to walk away should the Heat win a third straight championship.
Parker won’t be going anywhere in San Antonio but there are whispers that both Duncan, perhaps the NBA’s greatest ever power forward, and Ginobili will retire after this season. Duncan will be 38 in late April and Ginobili 37 in July.
The Spurs made a visit to Miami this season on January 26. The Heat won 113-101 as 3.5-point betting favorites. That started the Spurs on a season-high three-game losing streak. The Heat never trailed in the game and led by as many as 29. Bosh was 9-for-10 from the field for 24 points. Duncan led the Spurs with 23, but they played without injured starters Leonard, Danny Green and Tiago Splitter. All are back now.
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