The 38-44 Milwaukee Bucks will open the 2013 NBA Playoffs on the road as they face the 66-16 Miami Heat in a pro basketball Game 1 of their best of seven series on Sunday night. Tip off time from Miami is scheduled for 7PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by TNT.
The odds from this NBA playoff game have the home team Miami Heat favored by -13 points with an over under line of 199 points. There has been no line movement in this NBA playoff game since the odds were released a few hours ago.
The Heat and Bucks have met four times this season with Miami winning all three games. Each team covered the spread twice, once on the road and one time at home.
Milwaukee has a road record of 17-24 on the year. They were not playing for much down the stretch as the eighth seed as they had put some distance on the ninth seeded Philadelphia 76ers and clinched well before the end of the regular season. As a result the team has dropped seven of their past nine games. On offense the team has struggled shooting the basketball as they connect on 43.5% of his shots ranking 28th and third worst in the NBA. The Bucks guard tandem on Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings really brings down the team shooting percentage. Jennings connects on just 39.9% from the field while Ellis improved following the trade for J.J. Reddick to bring his shooting percentage to 41.6% and dished out more assists to keep his starting role. Jennings has been in the doghouse for inefficient play following the coaching change in season. Defensively the Bucks surrender 100.4 points a game ranking 20th in the league.
The Heat is 37-4 playing on their home court. The team clinched home court advantage for the entire playoffs but still with nothing to play for late in the season the team won seven straight and went 38-2 to close the season. Miami puts up some impressive offensive numbers on their home court. On their home court the Heat average 106.4 points a game along with 50.8% shooting and 40.9% from the three point line. The Heat finished in the top six in the NBA in both scoring defense and defensive field goal percentage. The team gives up 95 points along with 44% shooting to opponents this season. An issue for the Heat has been their size down low as they are the worst rebounding team of the NBA is you are nitpicking searching for a flaw from this team.
