Christmas has its traditions and for the third straight year the NBA brings us a dish of Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers to be served up with Christmas dinner from American Airlines Arena in Miami starting at 2:30 p.m. (EST).
In Miami, the Lakers have gone 5-5 in their last 10 visits but have dropped three of the last four including the last two in a row. Miami defeated the Lakers 104-102 in overtime back in 2004 at Staples Center in Los Angeles and 97-92 in 2005 at Miami.
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Under head coach Phil Jackson, Los Angeles is 8-4 versus Miami. In Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal’s four head to- head meetings, Bryant is averaging 35.5 points (142), 6.0 rebounds (24) and 4.0 assists (16) while O’Neal is averaging 21.3 points (85), 12.5 rebounds (50) and 2.00 blocks (8). In his last four games against the Heat since playing for Miami, Lamar Odom is averaging 17.0 points (68), 12.0 rebounds (48), 6.0 assists (24), 1.25 steals (5) and 1.25 blocks (5).
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Since Phil Jackson joined the Lakers prior to the 1999-00 season, he and former Lakers head coach Pat Riley have met on 10 occasions with Jackson holding a 6-4 edge in those games.
In the last regular season game between the Heat and Lakers, Kobe Bryant scored 37 points while Lamar Odom narrowly missed a triple-double with 19 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists as the Lakers defeated the Miami Heat for the first time with Shaquille O’Neal 100-92 at Staples Center on Jan 16 last season.
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The betting line is split -1 to -1 ½ -points favoring Miami among numerous sportsbooks both offshore and in Las Vegas so the player might need to shop around for the best line. A total of 200 ½ has also been set and is mostly industry wide. The Heat have cashed for its backers three of the last five games played in American Airlines Arena with the OVER also cashing in four of five games in Miami games at home.
The Lakers have been very comfortable away from Staples Center covering ATS in five consecutive games. The OVER has cashed in three of the five previous road games.
