New York Knicks vs Miami Heat betting tips and predictions for Wednesday’s NBA Playoffs game on TNT. The Knicks are in desperate need of a win to extend their season as they host the Miami Heat being down 3-1 in their series. Read on for all our free predictions and betting tips.
New York Knicks
Even though he got 20 points and 9 rebounds in the Game 4 loss, Julius Randle has come under a lot of criticism over the last day or so for disappearing in the 2nd half of that game. I wouldn’t put the loss solely on him though, the Knicks as a team got outrebounded once again, they had 7 assists less and committed 4 more turnovers while shooting just 32% from three.
With those type of numbers it’s hard to win any game, let alone a game vs Miami in the Eastern Conference semi-finals. The good news is they return home, so maybe that helps them extend the series a bit. The Knicks are 13-4 SU in their last 17 games at Madison Square Garden. The oddsmakers have them as 3-point underdogs, which isn’t ideal considering they’ve covered the spread just 5 times in their last 18 home games vs the Heat.
Miami Heat
The Heat were once again the better team in almost every statistical category. Their numbers won’t wow you, but they do just enough to get the win. Jimmy Butler had 27 and 10 assists, Bam Adebayo added 23, while Kyle Lowry and Caleb Martin added 15 and 10 off the bench. Defense is what got the Heat the victory and they’ll look to rely on it once again to finish the job in tonight’s game.
This team has covered the spread in 7 straight games, they are also 5-1 ATS in their last 6 vs New York and have lost only once in their last 7 games overall. And they’re doing all this with 2 very important role players in Victor Oladipo and Tyler Herro both out most likely for the remainder of the postseason.
It’s hard to find reasons to back New York here, other than them playing at home which should give them a slight edge. Jalen Brunson has been solid over the last 2 games despite losing both, I expect players like Josh Hart and Obi Toppin to play a lot better in front of the home crowd. I’ll take a gamble on the Knicks here and back them to cover.
New York Knicks vs Miami Heat Predictions & Odds
Points have been hard to come by in this series, Game 4 with 210 points was the 2nd highest scoring game of the series so far. The projected total has gone up a bit, it’s sitting at 209.5 points which is in line with the first 2 games at MSG which saw 209 and 216 points. Neither team shot the ball all that well on Monday, the Knicks scored only 9 threes, while the Heat were slightly better with 13 of them.
With their season on the line I expect the Knicks to give a much better effort here, especially on the defensive end where they’ve prided themselves all season long. The under has landed in 7 of their last 9 games, shutting down one of either Jimmy Butler or Bam Adebayo would be huge for them in this game. Miami also isn’t all that consistent on the over in road games, in fact they are just 21-24-1 on the O/U away from home this season. I’ll take my chances with the under in this game.
