Miami Heat at Denver Nuggets 8/1/20: NBA Basketball free preview, analysis, prediction, odds and pick against the spread.
2020-08-01 13:00:00 EDT
The Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets meet Saturday in NBA action at the HP Field House.
The Miami Heat entered the NBA break winning five of their last seven games. The Miami Heat are averaging 112.2 points on 47 percent shooting and allowing 108.9 points on 44.7 percent shooting. Jimmy Butler is averaging 20.2 points and 6.6 rebounds while Bam Adebayo is averaging 16.2 points and 5.1 assists. Goran Dragic is the third double-digit scorer and Kendrick Nunn is dishing 3.4 assists. The Miami Heat are shooting 38.3 percent from beyond the arc and 77.8 percent from the free thitem line. The Miami Heat are allowing 34.6 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 44.6 rebounds per game.
The Denver Nuggets entered the NBA break splitting their last 12 games. The Denver Nuggets are averaging 110.4 points on 47.1 percent shooting and allowing 107.4 points on 45.9 percent shooting. Nikola Jokic is averaging 20.2 points and 10.1 rebounds while Jamal Murray is averaging 18.8 points and 4.8 assists. Will Barton is the third double-digit scorer and Paul Millsap is grabbing 5.9 rebounds. The Denver Nuggets are shooting 35.8 percent from beyond the arc and 77.5 percent from the free thitem line. The Denver Nuggets are allowing 34.6 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 44.3 rebounds per game.
The Heat are 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games as an underdog, 8-2-1 ATS in their last 11 Saturday games and 5-11 ATS in their last 16 games overall. The Nuggets are 1-3-1 ATS in their last 5 Saturday games, 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games as a favorite and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games overall. The over is 9-3 in Heat last 12 overall. The under is 4-1 in Nuggets last 5 overall. The Heat are 4-10 ATS in the last 14 meetings in Denver and 8-19 ATS in the last 27 meetings.
The Miami Heat are at full strength for the first time in a while and are a dangerous team when playing to their full potential, as they can get hot and stay hot from deep. The Denver Nuggets have won five of the last six meetings against the Heat, but they’re inconsistent at best overall, and they didn’t show enough scoring punch throughout the year to think they can hang with a Heat team that’s looking to shoot oodles of threes. Early start that’s even earlier for a team from the West Coast. I’ll take a shot with the Heat and the free bucket.
