The Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat will open the Eastern Conference Finals at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Sunday afternoon. [ad-4468020]<\/p>\n
Eastern Conference Finals Game 1<\/strong>
\nMiami Heat (8-1) at Indiana Pacers (8-5)<\/strong>
\nDate: Sunday, May 18, 2014<\/strong>
\nTime: 3:30 PM ET<\/strong>
\nVenue: Bankers Life Fieldhouse<\/strong>
\nCity: Indianapolis, Indiana<\/strong>
\nO\/U Odds: 181<\/strong>
\nSpread: Miami -2.5<\/strong>
\n [dfads params=’groups=63740&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/strong><\/p>\nATS Matchup Insight<\/a> | CappersPicks Insider Preview<\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The two sides have taken very different paths to the conference finals, with the Heat brushing off the Bobcats and Nets, while the top-seeded Pacers needed seven games to get past the Hawks, then let the Wizards bring them to a sixth game.<\/p>\n
The Pacers said before the season that they wanted home court advantage for this very season, and they\u2019ve got it. The problem is, they played so well during the regular season that they coasted through the final two months of the season, and have had a tough time re-lighting their competitive fire.<\/p>\n
\nCLICK GRAB OUR BEST Expert Hoops Picks for 2014 GAMBLING season!<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The most recent postseason meeting between these teams came in last season\u2019s Eastern Conference Finals, a series which the Heat won in Game 7 with a decisive 99-76 victory in South Beach. LeBron James averaged 29.0 points per game in that series, and is coming off a conference semifinal series in which he averaged 30.0 points on 57.0 shooting against the Brooklyn Nets.<\/p>\n
Pacers center Roy Hibbert will play a big role in deciding whether the Pacers can compete in this series.
\n[ad-6571516]
\nHe has had plenty of trouble re-finding his strong form from a year ago in these playoffs, though he did pick up his play in the latter stages of the Wizards series, averaging 14.8 points in the final five games of that one, after averaging just 4.6 points per game in the first eight games of this postseason.<\/p>\nThe Heat are just playing at a whole different level than the Pacers right now. Indiana was able to step up their game and down the Wizards, but Miami presents an entirely different test, and the Pacers could be in for a rude awakening in this one. After the Hawks and Wizards each took the series opener from the Pacers on their home court, there is little reason to believe the Heat won\u2019t do the same.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the total in this game is set as if the Pacers were playing the kind of defense we\u2019re used to seeing from them. The reality is, they haven\u2019t shown anything that would lead us to believe they can stop the Heat\u2019s offensive attack, and as we saw during the regular year, when the Heat score points in this series, overs follow.<\/p>\n
The Pacers are 17-37-1 ATS in their last 55 games overall, while the Heat are 4-0 ATS in their last four games played on three or more days rest.<\/p>\n
The over is 5-1 in the Heat\u2019s last six games overall, and it is 7-1 in the Heat\u2019s last eight games played on three or more days rest.<\/p>\n
The play: Miami -2.5, Over 181<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Heat vs Pacers Online Betting Odds The Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat will open the Eastern Conference Finals at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":976,"featured_media":74789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[49232,3779,44762,2443,2765,44764,44765,2381,12357,11979],"class_list":["post-77211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-eastern-conference-final","tag-game-1","tag-heat-vs-pacers","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-miami-heat","tag-miami-heat-vs-indiana-pacers","tag-miami-vs-indiana","tag-nba-picks","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-round-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/976"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77211"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77227,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77211\/revisions\/77227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}