Miami Heat looking to win 18 straight at home as they face off against Memphis Grizzlies – NBA Preview
On Friday night, the Memphis Grizzlies will be visiting Miami Heat to play their third game in four nights.
The Heat who secured a playoff spot after their win against Philadelphia on Tuesday night, will be looking to tie a franchise best of 18 straight home wins against the Grizzlies.
Despite struggling on the road, Heat have been a completely different team at home. They currently hold the best home record in the NBA, 23-2. This impressive run at home has been due to their aggressive defence against any team who has visited the American Airline Arena.
Miami, despite being undersized have held their opponents below 90 points – 87.8 points to be precise - while forcing the visitors to 17.7 turnovers in their last nine home games.
Miami will be coming into the game after having defeated the Western Conference powerhouses Oklahoma City Thunder in a come from behind win as they avenged last weeks’ away loss and also LeBron James came out top of the matchup between the two MVP candidates (the other being Kevin Durant).
LeBron ended the night with 34 points while also forcing Durant into a career worst nine turnovers on the night with his immaculate defensive performance. Dwyane Wade also played well on his return from injury.
Memphis, who will be visiting the South Beach for the first time this season, seem to be under scrutiny due to their busy schedule. Last time out, they went up against Dallas having won three in a row, but the tiredness and fatigue began to show as they lost the contest deep, 95-85, while only shooting 6 of 21 in the last quarter of the game.
In their last visit to Miami previous season, the Grizzlies were given a 118-85 thrashing. James scored 27 points while playing for 32 minutes and has averaged 30.3 points in last four outing against them.
As the Grizzlies try to end Miami`s home streak, their best option is to dominate from the inside but with their big men struggling to hold their own on the glass, it doesn’t look like that it would make much of a difference against the Heat, who seem to not care at all about who they face at home.
Miami will be looking to do the same by running their fast offence throughout the night against Grizzlies who may be a little fatigued still.
Memphis have another cause for worry as their big man, Marc Gasol has averaged only 12.0 points on 38.5 percent in his previous four games; while power forward Zach Randolph has had a total of 10 points in his last two games.
If the Grizzlies are to topple the Heat on their own turf, they will have to outplay them in the paint with their superior size and will also need to handle the ball with extreme care, because there isn’t a unit out there that is as lethal in transition as Heat.
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