Miami’s Defense Should Be The Factor Against The 76ers
The 76ers vs Heat Betting Trends Like Miami In This One
The Philadelphia 76ers struggled to find much success this season once Joel Embiid went down. However, Embiid just returned in a home game against the Thunder and scored 24 points in 29 minutes to help lead the Sixers past one of the best Western Conference teams.
Now that he’s back, Embiid will have two weeks to get acclimated before the playoffs begin. That’s plenty of time for him to get back to game speed. The 76ers already saw their NBA playoff odds increase with Embiid’s return.
It will still take some work to get a guaranteed spot in the NBA bracket over the next couple of weeks.
Meanwhile, the 76ers will hit the road to take on the Miami Heat in Embiid’s second game back. The Heat are 1.5 games ahead of the 76ers in the East and sitting at 7th place, while the 76ers are 8th in the East.
In the NBA, the 7-10 seeds will compete in the Play-In Tournament to earn the final seeds of the Conference. Therefore, there’s a lot at stake in this game. Neither team is that far away from getting into the top six.
That said, the Heat are currently 2.5-point favorites at home, with the total at 209.5. However, the Over is juiced to -115.
Take a look at the 76ers vs Heat betting trends and odds for this massive Eastern Conference game.
Philadelphia 76ers vs Miami Heat 
Date, time:
Location: Kaseya Center
76ers vs Heat Betting Trends
The 76ers have been dominating against the spread recently. Philadelphia has covered eight of their last ten games and is currently 42-33-1 against the spread this season. Meanwhile, the 76ers have only hit the Over in two more games than the Under this season. They’re also just 19-19 on the road this year.
Conversely, the Heat have only gone 5-4-1 against the spread over the last ten games. They’ve also lost one more game than they won against the spread this season. However, at home, the Heat are 20-17 and most recently defeated the Knicks by ten as a 2.5-point favorite on Tuesday.
This will also be the fourth game between these two teams. The Heat are 2-1 against the 76ers on the NBA scoreboard. The Heat won the first two, and the 76ers won the most recent one. The team that won the game also covered against the spread. All three games were still tight and finished as one-score games.
Joel Embiid Says Injury Took a Toll Mentally
Eight weeks after surgery to repair a lateral meniscus in his knee, Joel Embiid took the floor for the 76ers just in time to prepare for the playoffs.
When asked about his return, Embiid said that his injury had taken a toll on him mentally. He said he was depressed and had a difficult time recovering from a mental standpoint.
Although he’s back in the court, Embiid admitted he’s not 100% mentally just yet. Before he was hurt, Embiid had averaged 35 points per game. The 76ers were 27-8 when Embiid played and 14-27 when he didn’t.
Before his injury, Embiid was on pace to win the MVP. Now, he can’t. So that’s one of the other reasons he doesn’t feel like himself yet. Ultimately, he’s got enough time to get re-acclimated before the playoffs. Hopefully, he can get his mental health to a better point by then.
Miami’s Defense Has Become Elite
The Miami Heat have been super inconsistent this year, but they have genuinely found their identity over the last two months.
The Heat were just 24-23 by the end of January. They had been in the middle of the NBA in defensive rating and had allowed more than 114 points per 100 possessions.
Right now, the Heat are fifth-best in defensive rating and have allowed 111.6 points per 100 possessions. Since February 1, the Heat are 18-10 and have the league’s best defensive rating in that time, at 107.1 points per 100 possessions.
The defense must continue playing at this level if the Heat want to avoid the NBA Play-In Tournament. They know it’s their ticket to winning.
Can We Fully Rely On Philadelphia Yet?
It’s great that Joel Embiid is back on the floor with the 76ers. But he’s still not 100% and won’t put up the numbers he had been putting up earlier in the season just yet.
While the 76ers took care of business against the Thunder last time out, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams didn’t play in that game. That was Oklahoma City’s best two players sitting out, and the 76ers almost lost that game.
The 76ers haven’t been great offensively over the last few months. Plus, they turned the ball over 18.6% of the time against the Thunder last time out. That doesn’t look good against the Miami Heat, who have been playing elite-level defense.
In Miami’s last five games, the Heat have held teams to no more than 108.8 points per 100 possessions in four of those five games. In two of those five games, opponents have scored no more than 81.4 points per 100 possessions.
Miami is doing this by limiting foul shots and offensive rebounds. The Heat have also held teams from getting good looks from the field. Opponents have had a 53.9% effective field goal percentage in four of the last five games against the Heat this season.
While the offense hasn’t been nearly as elite, the Heat typically do well keeping turnovers down and have been getting good shots over the last few games.
Miami has shot an effective field goal percentage of at least 56.9% in three consecutive games and has been getting to the foul line at a very high rate. The offensive rebounds won’t come, but second chances aren’t needed as much when you get good looks.
After reviewing the 76ers vs Heat betting trends, we’ll back the Heat at home at -2.5 (-110).
76ers vs Heat Betting
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