Miami Heat @ San Antonio Spurs – Thursday, June 13

2013 NBA Betting – LeBron Faces His Foremost Moment Of Truth In The Finals

The Miami Heat were crushed in Game 3 of the NBA Finals. They now face a challenge that champions are supposed to meet with determination. All eyes are watching LeBron James.

2013 NBA Finals, Game 4:

Miami Heat @ San Antonio Spurs – Thursday, June 13

Sport betting line: San Antonio -1.5

Why Miami Will Win

With an online horse betting guru or a college football betting expert, the calculus of a given event should not be overrated due to one trend. It has to be pointed out that LeBron James has faltered in this series, but at every prior point in the 2013 NBA season, the league MVP has done what he has needed to do to engineer a turnaround and lead the Heat to a higher plateau. In this game, LeBron should be able to make the course corrections that will put Miami in a good spot.

It’s no secret that LeBron took an already substantial amount of talent and made it even better this season. LeBron scored at least 30 points and hit at least 60 percent of his shots in six straight games this season, setting an NBA record. Yes, LeBron knows how to get to the rim, but that kind of streak depended in large part on LeBron’s improved jump shot. LeBron worked a lot on his jumper in the offseason, trying to make himself that much tougher for any opposing defense to handle. When LeBron is hitting his jumper, there’s really no way to fully shut him down. If James does get his jumper fixed and tweaked to the point where he’s hitting it with regularity, Miami should be able to gain leverage in this game.

The other point that has to be added here from a Miami perspective is that San Antonio point guard Tony Parker does not know how fit he’ll be for Game 4 after injuring his hamstring in Game 3. If Parker is not on the floor, the Spurs will be much more limited at the offensive end – not in terms of their shooting ability, but in terms of their passing and ball movement. One also has to acknowledge that the Spurs aren’t likely to hit 16 threes in a game again, as they did in Game 3 on Tuesday. The limits of LeBron’s struggles and the limits of the Spurs’ excellence point to a Miami bounce-back in Game 4.

Why San Antonio Will Win

Online football betting students who want to add a little intrigue to their week might be interested in making a play on the favorite in this game. The Spurs certainly have reason to be confident after their 36-point blowout of the Heat in Game 3. They also know that they are in LeBron James’ head at this point in the series.

In this series, San Antonio is giving LeBron the jump shot in this series because it knows that it is so important to keep him away from both the rim and the free throw line. This is an entirely sound and logical tactic by Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, but the mystery for Miami is that LeBron is not hitting midrange or three-point jumpers even though San Antonio is giving him all the space he wants when he’s 18 or more feet from the basket. LeBron, though, is not handling this dynamic well. He is clearly pressing in this series, calling to mind his strangely disjointed display the last time the Heat played a team from the state of Texas in the NBA Finals, in 2011 against the Dallas Mavericks. LeBron never really broke out of his slump in the middle games of that series. The fact that LeBron has struggled in all three games of this series, not just one or two, makes it entirely reasonable to conclude that James will labor and fail in Game 4 as well.

Who Will Win?

The sense here is that this will be a seven-game series. Given that San Antonio is leading now, Miami should be able to fight back and even this series at 2-2 heading into Game 5 on Sunday.

NBA Betting Pick: Miami +1.5

 

Winning Parlay Pick: Spurs -1.5

Good luck to all betting on this game, should be a good one.