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Indiana Pacers vs. Miami Heat – 8/20/20 NBA Pick, Odds, and Prediction

Miami Heat at Indiana Pacers 8/20/20: NBA Basketball free preview, analysis, prediction, odds and pick against the spread.
2020-08-20 13:00:00 EDT

The Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers meet Thursday in game two of NBA playoff action at the HP Field House.

The Miami Heat look for another victory to take a quick 2-0 series lead. The Miami Heat are averaging 113 points on 49.4 percent shooting and allowing 101 points on 47.4 percent shooting. Jimmy Butler is averaging 28 points and three rebounds while Goran Dragic is averaging 24 points and five assists. Bam Adebayo is the third double-digit scorer and Tyler Herro is dishing four assists. The Miami Heat are shooting 37.1 percent from beyond the arc and 80 percent from the free thitem line. The Miami Heat are allowing 41.7 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 35 rebounds per game.

The Indiana Pacers could use a victory here to even up the series at 1-1. The Indiana Pacers are averaging 101 points on 47.4 percent shooting and allowing 113 points on 49.4 percent shooting. Malcolm Brogdon is averaging 22 points and 10 assists while TJ Warren is averaging 22 points and eight rebounds. Justin Holiday is the third double-digit scorer and JaKarr Sampson is grabbing three rebounds. The Indiana Pacers are shooting 41.7 percent from beyond the arc and 86.4 percent from the free thitem line. The Indiana Pacers are allowing 37.1 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 37 rebounds per game.

The Heat are 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games playing on 1 days rest, 4-1 ATS in their last 5 playoff games as a favorite and 9-2-1 ATS in their last 12 Thursday games. The Pacers are 6-2-1 ATS in their last 9 games as an underdog, 16-38 ATS in their last 54 Thursday games and 8-3-1 ATS in their last 12 games overall. The over is 10-4 in Heat last 14 games as a favorite. The under is 4-0 in Pacers last 4 overall. The under is 5-2 in the last 7 meetings.

The concerning part for the Indiana Pacers from game ones loss was that they lost and the Miami Heat didn’t even shoot the ball well from three. The Heat are one of the better three point shooting teams in the league, and Duncan Robinson and others didn’t come close to their usual games. It felt like game one was the game the Pacers had to have to make this a series, and they blew it. Some would argue that a possible return of Victor Oladipo will help the Pacers in this contest, but he hasn’t been his normal self for two years now and hasn’t been particularly good this year. I don’t see this series being as close as others do.

I’ll lay the small chalk with the Heat. 

Randy Chambers's Free Pick: Miami Heat -4.5

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Randy Chambers

Randy has covered sports betting since 2014 and writes about everything from NFL to WNBA. Follow Randy Chambers on Twitter.

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