NBA Bet of the Day: Miami's poor run to continue with big loss in Brooklyn

Miami Heat @ Brooklyn Nets
Tuesday, 00:30 GMT
Live on Sky Sports Arena

Hawks turning things around

The Heat have now lost five of the past seven following Friday night's loss to the Nets. They get a chance at revenge straight away but they will have to find something special if they are going to. They currently sit 30th in rebounding and that is where a lot of their problems begin. It is crazy that a team with Bam Adebayo in it could be this poor but only one other player on the roster is averaging more than five rebounds a game.

They sit bottom 10 in both offensive and defensive scoring. I thought they might have a bit of a hangover from that run to the finals but even I did not think it would be this bad. They played so well as a team in the bubble but look a little lost now.

Things are not made any easier with the team set to be missing Jimmy Butler, Avery Bradley (both COVID protocols) and Tyler Herro (neck spasms). With those players it would be tough, but without them it could be impossible.

Hawks turning things around

The Nets have their big three on the court now and they bounced back from two losses to hold on against Miami. They sit second in offence and that is before James Harden really finds his feet. Kevin Durant has been in excellent form throughout and if that duo and Kyrie Irving can build some chemistry then it is easy to imagine that they will end the season on top of those ranks.

Defensively they can be beaten though. They are giving up 117 points per game and while they will always be capable of outshooting their opponents, it puts so much more pressure on them to do it night in, night out. If they really want to win a title then they will have to improve things there as up against the best teams in the conference it is unlikely to be enough over a seven game series to just score well.

Hawks turning things around

The Nets may need to improve defensively, but Miami - particularly with their injury issues - are not the team to test them. Brooklyn let the Heat stick around on Friday night but expect them to be more dominant here and put them away.