NBA Match Preview – Miami Heat versus Washington Wizards
Kicking off this week’s play will be the Miami Heat as they host the Washington Wizards on Monday night. Coming fresh from a week of losses, the Heat will be struggling to get a win this time with their star forward LeBron James
looking at a tense week. Playing as a free agent, James returns to Cleveland on Thursday, however, he still has two Miami matchups before that.
Miami currently hold a 9-8 record this season. Coming from a terrible week, the Heat really have to bring their all if they hope to win more games. Their most recent defeat was on Saturday when they played an away match against
the Dallas Mavericks. Falling to three digits for a second game in the week, Heat lost the match 95-106. This was their sixth straight game where the Heat have failed to score more than 99 points. Immediately after the match an all-players meeting was called,
supposedly to get the players “back on track”. James talked about the meeting after saying, "It was a well-needed team meeting where everybody had a chance to get off whatever they had on their chest or in their head about us figuring things out. Right
now we are a 9-8 team and we have to own up to that. Does our record speak of the quality of team we can become? I don't think so. But right now we're 9-8 and we're playing like that."
Even though the Heat lost their match to the Mavericks, star players Dwyane Wade scored 22 points with nine boards and five assists while James scored 23 points. Although the scoring percentage is low, the form of both players
can be expected to continue in the match tonight.
Although the Heat’s away record is low at the moment (2-5), their home record currently resides at 7-3. They have managed to win three of the four home matches in the last two weeks. This fact should speak a little about the result
against the Wizards since the Heat’s again enjoy the home advantage. Although they had a three-match losing streak from November 20th to November 24th, they managed to overturn the losing streak after winning their Friday night match
against the Philadelphia 76ers.
With their matters sorted out and issues resolved, the Heat are probably ready to take on the Wizards tonight.
If it was a bad week for the Heat, the Wizards had a similar, if not worst, last week. Losing three of their four matches, the Wizards finished the week with a 1-3 record making their season record stand at 5-10. The only match
they won was on Monday where they defeated the 76ers.
Although from a statistical point of view, both teams enjoy a 4-6 mark in the last ten matches, Wizards have more to worry about since their losing streak on the road is seven matches. Maybe the Heat can find comfort in this fact
and kick off the week to a good start by winning one over the Wizards.
Meeting for the ninth time on the courts, the teams head to head rests at 7-1 in the Heat’s favour. However, in their last meeting in 2009, the Wizards managed to beat the Heat. Was it a one hit wonder or have the Wizards broken
their losing streak against the Heat? It remains to be seen!
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