Geoff JohnsonLebron King James and the Miami Heat will look to bounce back exactly in the place where he
lost the NBA Finals last season, in Dallas, against the Mavericks, this Christmas Day at 2:30 PM
ET.
The Heat is -4.5 favorites in the NBA odds over the Mavs. The game total is 189.
The thing about Miami is that they finished exceptionally strong last year, despite losing the
finals to Dirk Nowitzki and company. When the three stars got together (James, Wade and
Bosh) the question was on who is going to get the lead of the team, and how they would play;
well, they found those answers in the postseason last year.
The Heat added a key piece to the puzzle as defensive mindset Shane Battier joined the team
three weeks ago. Battier is somebody that can defend the perimeter, take out the best player
of the opponents’ team, and knockout threes.
Also, people in Miami said Lebron James worked all offseason on his low post game situation;
he has the perfect attributes to dominate from the post, but somehow he never developed
that asset; we´ll see how he looks this season.
The Mavs, on the other hand, got rid off JJ Barea and Tyrson Chandler; plus, Peja Stojakovic
retired. Barea and Chandler were especially key players in the win against the Big Three in
the finals. They added Lamar Odom (which is a great key), but they added the most overrated
shooting guard in the league: Vince Carter.
The game should be a fun one to see, especially considering there are just 66 games to play
this season. The Heat, because they didn´t have tremendous offseason moves, should win this
one easy.
