Miami is starting to bring the Heat

[Betfair]

Professional sports handicapper Jeff Mattingly previews an Eastern Conference matchup between the Miami Heat and Milwaukee Bucks at the Bradley Center

At the time of this writing, the board is Miami Heat -4.5 (1.8, -125) and Milwaukee Bucks +4.5 (2.16, +116)

Miami is looking to win a season-high fifth straight game when visiting the Milwaukee Bucks at the Bradley Center on Monday night. The Heat called a players-only meeting after a 106-95 loss at Dallas on November 27th and have won four in a row since by an average of 19 points. Forward LeBron James thinks the road trip comes at a perfect time in continuing to improve team unity. "Those are the best times," he said. "We can come together and do some things as a team that you can't really do too much when you're home." Miami is just 3-5 on the road this season, but all three wins have come against Eastern Conference opponents. The squad is 3-5 ATS on the road this season.

The Heat and Bucks will meet for the first of four match-ups this season. Last year, Milwaukee won the season-series, 3-1. Miami is 50-30 all-time versus the Bucks in the regular season, including a 25-16 mark in Milwaukee. The 25 road wins mark the second highest total by Miami against an opponent and the 50 overall wins are the third best Miami has recorded against an opponent. James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade combined to score 75 points versus Atlanta on Saturday, which was the sixth game this season in which the trio scored at least 70 points.

Milwaukee is coming off a surprising 96-85 win over Orlando on Saturday after dropping seven of eight games, but many will point out that the Magic were missing players due to a stomach virus in that contest. The Bucks are giving up just 93.2 points per game on the season, but were allowing 104.5 points in the four games prior to their last contest. Center Andrew Bogut continues to play great basketball, as he scored a season-high 31 points and grabbed 18 rebounds in the win. "It was definitely big for us to have Bogues back," said John Salmons. "He really set the tone for us at the beginning of the game." Milwaukee is 4-0 ATS against Southeast Division opponents this year.

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Miami is starting to bring the Heat : Basketball : Betfair.net