Heat vs Nuggets Betting Odds: Heat Know Do or Die, Can they Survive Another?

Nuggets Using Weapons Other than Joker; WINNING!

Denver Ready for Mile-High Celebrations

The Denver Nuggets are just one win away from their first-ever NBA championship after securing another road win in Miami in Game 4. Let’s take a look at the Heat vs Nuggets Betting Odds for Game 5 and see what value remains on offer for bettors.

The Nuggets showed they’re more than just a two-man game as they took a 3-1 series lead in the NBA Finals. Five players scored in double figures, with Aaron Gordon leading the way thanks to a playoff-high 27 points on 11-for-15 shooting.

Meanwhile, Miami just can’t seem to find the necessary spark from their role players to keep pace with this Denver offense. Gabe Vincent, Max Strus, and Caleb Martin went a combined 6-for-22 from the field, with Vincent and Strus going 0-for-7 from beyond the arc and finishing with 2 points between them.

The NBA Finals Odds have opened with Denver as 9.0-point home favorites for Game 5 while the full game total continues to drop and is currently sitting at 208.5 points.

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Nuggets Getting Comfortable Against the Zone

Miami’s best strength these playoffs have been their ability to stifle offenses with their combination of zone defenses. They often juggled between stopping their opponent’s primary option and taking away secondary options, but as of right now, they can’t seem to stop anything.

Game 4 saw Bruce Brown explode for 21 points off the bench on 8-for-11 shooting. That came just a game after teammate Christian Braun had his career playoff high off the court as well for Denver, who seemingly keep finding ways to initiate scoring in a multitude of ways.

Naturally, all of this stems from Nikola Jokic’s dominance inside and the fact Miami doesn’t have an answer for the Serbian sensation means they’re constantly at a disadvantage no matter what they try to take away.

Denver was the NBA best-ranked team in the regular season against zone defenses and they’ve carried that through all the way to the NBA Finals. Unfortunately for the Miami Heat, they don’t have the talent to play man against this Nuggets lineup and their options seem sunk in terms of slowing down Denver’s offensive productivity.

And so it seems the best answer is to fight fire with fire, but can Miami rely on their scorers coming up big once more?

Jimmy Butler has reliably been among the NBA scoring leaders when healthy in the playoffs, but the ankle injury that lingered over him to start the Finals certainly seems to be wreaking havoc.

Butler hasn’t had the explosiveness off the dribble to take advantage of mismatches and force the defense to collapse for his shooters to get open on the perimeter. He’s also been hesitant in backing down smaller defenders, which is making Denver’s life much easier on that end of the floor and allowing them to stick to the shooters.

This game should be about allowing Butler to implement himself where he sees fit and continuing to run things through Bam Adebayo in the paint. If he can pressure Jokic and force Denver to slow down that could allow Miami to run their offensive sets on the perimeter that proved so successful in getting to the Finals.

Heat vs Nuggets Betting Odds Best Bets

It’s tough to make a case for Miami right now, but expecting a team to win by double-digits in an elimination game in the NBA Finals is a tall ask – regardless of how well Denver might be performing at the moment.

The total has also been well adjusted to properly mirror the current pace in this series, but in a game where desperation will be at an all-time high for Miami, we’d expect a strong offensive output from some of their main stars.

The Over has become valuable at this number and with the market already shading toward the Under we could get a better number than 208.5 points by tip-off.

Also, look for another good Bam Adebayo game as he continues to lead the way for Miami at that end of the floor. Everything seemingly runs through him at the moment and his Points, Rebounds & Assist total still looks inviting at 33.5.

That’s all for our Heat vs Nuggets Betting Odds Game 5 preview. Let’s see if we get another game in this series, or if Denver secures their first NBA Championship in front of their home fans.

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