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Carrie Stroup here with your Bucks vs. Heat betting line for the NBA Playoffs Round 1. Bet this and all other NBA Playoffs games at Sportsbook.com here and claim your FREE $100 WAGER.
Sportsbook.ag Line & Total: Miami -13.5 & 199
Slumping Milwaukee travels to heavily-favored Miami, who it beat just once in four attempts this season, when the teams open their first-round playoff series on Sunday night.
The Bucks enter this series with a 4-12 SU mark (6-10 ATS) in their past 16 games, while the top-seeded Heat won each of their final eight games of the regular season, going 7-1 ATS. Miami had a magical season, at one point winning 27 straight games, but a new season starts on Sunday. The club was 3-1 SU against Milwaukee this season, but just 2-2 ATS. In the past two games played between the two, however, the Heat won and covered with a 13-point road win on March 15 and 94-83 home victory on April 9. The Bucks were a winning wager on the road this season at 21-20 ATS, but were only 17-24 SU, including nine losses in their final 10 away games. Miami was an impressive 37-4 SU at American Airlines Arena, but just 22-19 ATS in home games.
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Milwaukee enters the playoffs on a very bad skid, losing seven of its final nine games, with their only three wins coming over Toronto and at Oklahoma City which was resting all of its star players in a meaningless game. The Bucks are going to be relying heavily on the scoring of SG Monta Ellis who will be matched up with Dwyane Wade over the course of the series. Ellis has put up some big numbers lately. He scored 38 points against the Nuggets on Monday, and on April 12 he had 27 points, 17 assists and eight rebounds in a loss to the Hawks. Ellis is playing well offensively, but his offense is not coming in the flow of a winning team. PG Brandon Jennings will be rusty entering the series after missing two of the final five games and playing only 19.3 MPG in the three games he did suit up for. The health of C Larry Sanders is a major concern for the Bucks too. Sanders missed the past four games for Milwaukee and the club will need his shot-blocking (2.8 BPG) to have any chance at stopping Miami's star players at the rim.
Miami ended the regular season with an amazing 37-2 SU record in its final 39 games. SF LeBron James has been dominant all season and is heading towards another MVP Award after averaging 26.8 PPG, 8.0 RPG, 7.3 APG and 1.7 SPG. In the season series with Milwaukee, James was pretty much unstoppable with 27.5 PPG, 7.3 APG and 8.3 RPG in the four meetings. PF Chris Bosh will provide the Heat with the most effective inside scorer in the series, and he too is coming off of a very efficient regular season in which he averaged 16.6 PPG (54% FG), 6.8 RPG and 1.4 BPG. SG Dwyane Wade’s matchup with Monta Ellis will be key in this series, but if Wade plays anything like he did the second half of the season, then he should be able to win the matchup easily. Wade averaged 21.2 PPG (52% FG), 5.1 APG and 5.0 RPG for the season and dropped 24.0 PPG (51% FG), 5.7 APG and 5.3 RPG in three games versus Milwaukee. Wade’s health is always a concern for Miami, but he appears to be 100 percent after scoring 21 points to go along with 10 assists against Orlando on Wednesday.
- Carrie Stroup, Gambling911.com Senior Reporter
