Heat vs Warriors Head to Head: Golden State With Upper Hand

The Golden State Warriors welcome the Miami Heat to Chase Center on Thursday after a quick one-game road trip to Phoenix in which they lost to the Suns 134-105. The Warriors are now 2-2 on the season while the Miami Heat come into this contest with a 2-3 record. They’ve dropped games to the Chicago Bulls, Boston Celtics, and Toronto Raptors. Their first win also came against the Raptors in what was a two-game mini-series with Toronto and they beat the Trail Blazers in Portland on Wednesday night. Thursday’s Heat vs Warriors head to head matchup will be Miami’s second road game of the season and their first back-to-back game. The Golden State Warriors betting odds opened at -7.5, and we agree with where the market is at despite the Heat being the best team in the Eastern Conference last season.

Not Much Heat to Miami’s Start

The Heat have gotten out to a very slow start to the season after finishing last year with the top seed in the Eastern Conference and advancing to the conference finals. While they have nearly the same roster as last season, outside of PJ Tucker leaving for the Sixers, they haven’t looked like the juggernaut we’re used to seeing.

Bam Adebayo also hasn’t looked as dominant as he has in years past, with only one double-digit rebounding game thus far.

In two of their three losses this season, the Heat failed to shoot better than 30% from the three-point line, something that is surprising with the amount of shooting talent they have on their roster. Bam Adebayo also hasn’t looked as dominant as he has in years past, with only one double-digit rebounding game thus far.

Warriors Off a Bad Loss

We wouldn’t want to be the first team the Warriors have to play after coming off of a bad loss. Golden State gave up 134 points to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday and allowed them to shoot 51.1% from the field and 41.4% from the three-point line. Teams don’t typically put up those types of numbers against the Warriors. Golden State was also outrebounded 48-49 and lost the paint battle 62-48. Klay Thompson was also ejected from that game after exchanging words with Devin Booker, so he should be fairly fresh and eager to get back on the court on Thursday.

Unfortunately for Miami, we can expect this Warriors team to come into Thursday’s Heat vs Warriors head to head contest with a bit of a chip on their shoulder and ready to bounce back after a bad performance. While Golden State doesn’t exactly sit at the top of the NBA stats leaders on the defensive side of the ball, they’re a much better defensive team than they’ve shown thus far. They lead the league in points off of turnovers with 24.0 points per game and if they’re able to get the Heat, (who play at the slowest pace in the league) to speed up their game, the Warriors should be able to feast in that category.

Concluding Our Heat vs Warriors Head to Head Preview: Our play would be to lay the points with Steph Curry and company as they’re back at the Chase Center after a bad loss. The Heat haven’t looked as dominant or like a team that is fully cohesive right now. Play Golden State at -7.5.

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