10:40 pm
December 10

Heat @ Lakers

Who will WIN this matchup?

Miami Heat (11-14)

@ Los Angeles Lakers (16-10)

 

Current odds:

Miami Heat: (+180)

Los Angeles Lakers: (-220)

 

 The line for this game is Lakers by 5 points.

• LeBron James and Dwyane Wade won a pair of championships together as teammates and will likely be taking the court together in an NBA game for the final time when James and the Los Angeles Lakers host Wade and the Miami Heat on Monday. Wade is expected to retire after the season but is still putting up throwback performances from time to time. James and Wade entered in the same 2003 draft class and spent four seasons together in Miami and part of 2017-18 together in Cleveland.

• Wade is no longer a consistently explosive scorer like he was a few years ago but followed up a rough performance in the opener of the road trip at Phoenix on Friday by burying five 3-pointers en route to 25 points in a 121-98 win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday. “I’ll savor this. We both will,” Wade told reporters of matching up against James one more time. “We both had some amazing moments versus each other as competitors. But we obviously had some great moments as teammates. And we’re going to be friends forever, but this is the last time we play basketball versus each other. So, we’ll enjoy it and then we’ll savor it.”

• Miami was down to eight healthy players after the first quarter at the Clippers on Saturday and joining Wade in stepping up was small forward Justise Winslow. The 22-year-old served as point guard for stretches with Goran Dragic (rest) and Josh Richardson (shoulder) sitting out and finished with 21 points, nine assists and six rebounds in the win. “I think I’m finally just catching a rhythm,” Winslow told reporters. “I’m healthy for the most part for a stretch of games and I’m just figuring it out. I’m still young. I’m still trying to figure out my niche in this league. But I think every game, I just get closer and closer to figuring that out.”

• Los Angeles bounced back from a loss at San Antonio by crushing the Memphis Grizzlies 111-88 to finish off the two-game road trip on Saturday. James nearly pulled off a triple-double with 20 points, nine assists and eight rebounds in the win while forward Kyle Kuzma knocked down four 3-pointers and finished with 20 points, nine rebounds and six assists. “Just falling,” Kuzma told reporters of his shot. “I’m gonna shoot till I get hot, regardless of 0 for 8, 5 for 8, it doesn’t matter to me. I’m gonna keep shooting. It’s falling now, so that’s good.”

•  Heat C Hassan Whiteside sat out due to the birth of a child on Saturday and is questionable.

• Lakers SF Brandon Ingram (ankle) missed the last two games and is not expected to play on Monday.

• The road team took the last three meetings, including a 113-97 Los Angeles win at Miami on Nov. 18 in which James scored 51 points.

6/10
Confidence
StreakSmarter Pick
Los Angeles Lakers