Miami Heat vs Oklahoma City Thunder betting tips and predictions for Tuesday’s NBA game on TNT. The Thunder are aiming to win their 3rd game in a row as they travel to South Beach to take on the Miami Heat. Read on for all our free predictions and betting tips.
Miami Heat
Miami is coming off another close defeat as they fell at home 102-101 against the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday. More important than the defeat though will be the status of Tyler Herro who appeared to have injured himself on the final play of the game. The Heat have one of the worst injury situations in the entire NBA, so they cannot afford to lose their 3rd leading scorer for an extended period of time.
Miami is already without Kyle Lowry, Duncan Robinson and Caleb Martin, while Bam Adebayo is questionable with a wrist issue. Their best player Jimmy Butler fortunately isn’t on that injury report, he just had 26 points in the loss to Brooklyn. He did not play in the 1st meeting between the two teams earlier this season, the Heat relied on Herro in that game who erupted for 35 points, including 9 threes.
Oklahoma City Thunder
The Thunder also have a few players out with injuries at the moment, but none of them are named Shai Gilgeous-Alexander so they’ll be going into tonight’s game full of confidence. In their last 8 visits to FTX Arena they are 6-2 ATS, so even if they have only 5 wins in 18 road games this season I wouldn’t count them out so easily here. SGA had 27 in the game vs Miami back in mid-November, he’s been averaging 31.3 points per game on the road this season while shooting 50% from the field. It’ll be interesting to see if he can keep that average up against one of the elite defenders in the game Jimmy Butler. The Thunder have fared well against the spread lately, covering 13 times in their last 20 outings. Against Southeast Division teams they are 8-3 ATS in their last 11 games.
Despite all the injuries, I still have Miami coming out on top here. Other than SGA, the Thunder are fairly weak on offense, which will be a problem going up against the 7th most efficient defense in the NBA. Take the Heat to cover.
Miami Heat vs Oklahoma City Thunder Predictions & Odds
We saw only 218 points in the 1st meeting of the season, that’s exactly the direction in which the last 10 meetings have gone with the two teams averaging 215.4 points per game during that stretch. The Heat have held their last 3 of 4 opponents to just 102, 96 and 100 points, so the Thunder could face difficulties scoring the basketball.
Tyler Herro’s absence will be huge for the Heat, he averages over 20 points per game, so they’ll look to compensate for his absence by playing even better lockdown defense on Oklahoma City. Although the Thunder has been in fine scoring form, their road games are only 9-9 on the O/U this season. They are currently in a 3-way tie for 18th in offensive efficiency, which is nothing to brag about. With the last 4 of 5 meetings finishing under the total, that’s the bet I’ll be backing in tonight’s game as well.
