MIAMI HEAT (24-12)
at GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS (23-13)
Tip-off: Wednesday, 10:35 p.m. ET Line: Miami -2.5, Total: 205 Slumping Miami heads to Oracle Arena on Wednesday night looking to get revenge for a December 12 loss to the Warriors. Both the Heat and the Warriors have been struggling recently, as Miami has lost four of its past six contests and is a woeful 2-8 ATS in the past 10 games. Golden State is riding a four-game ATS losing skid, losing three of those games outright as well. Which team will snap out of its funk on Wednesday night? For the answer, connect to NBA Best Bets for all the Expert picks throughout the entire 2012-13 season. StatFox Brian is 23-13 ATS (64%) on NBA Best Bets since Dec. 23, giving him a 55% ATS mark (62-51-3) for the season. StatFox Scott has a season Best Bets mark of 53% ATS (53-47), with Gary going 6-4 ATS since Jan. 9 to boost him to 52% ATS for the season. The four experts are collectively 51.0% ATS (232-223-11) on Best Bets for the season. For NBA Totals, Scott continues to have a profitable year at 54-40 (57%) for his season NBA totals, while both Brian and Gary have gone 3-0 in NBA Totals since Sunday. The Heat are coming off a 104-97 loss to the Jazz on the road Monday in which SF LeBron James (32 points) and reserves SG Ray Allen and PF Rashard Lewis (combined 23 points) kept them close after trailing by 21 points. James has been the lone bright spot for the Heat over their recent stretch of losses. Over the past two games, James is averaging 26.0 PPG on 20-of-29 FG (69%) with 6.5 APG, 4.0 SPG and 2.0 BPG. SG Dwyane Wade has struggled for the Heat in the past two games, averaging only 11.0 PPG in 27.0 MPG. He needs to score closer to his season average of 20.1 PPG in order to ease the burden on James, and the team is hoping that he'll respond in a positive way after being benched for the entire fourth quarter in the loss to Utah. PF Chris Bosh logged just 27 minutes in Monday's defeat, but he is still averaging 18.4 PPG on 60.3% FG over the past five games. However, his rebounding has been an issue for the Heat, as he is pulling down only 4.6 RPG in that stretch. Miami is last in the NBA in rebounding at 38.6 RPG. Golden State is coming off a 116-105 loss in Denver on Sunday, but it was leading for most of the game before a sluggish fourth quarter. PG Stephen Curry has been playing incredibly for the Warriors, averaging 23.2 PPG, 7.2 APG and 1.6 SPG on 48.3% FG over the past five games. In that stretch, Curry is shooting 55.3% (21-of-38) from beyond the three-point arc. PF David Lee has continued to make his case for an All-Star selection, averaging 23.5 PPG (58% FG), 11.5 RPG and 3.5 APG over the past two games. SF Harrison Barnes turned in one of his best performances of his rookie season in the loss against the Nuggets with 21 points and six rebounds while shooting 8-for-11 from the field and 5-of-6 from three-point land.
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