The two hottest teams in the NBA will square off in New York on Friday night. It should come as no surprise that the Miami Heat are on a roll right now, but most have been caught off guard by the success of the New York Knicks. Miami has won 10 straight games, while New York has won eight of their last nine. The Knicks were edged, 118-116, by the Celtics on Wednesday night. This is the perfect chance for them to prove they are for real in front of a national television audience on ESPN.

The Heat have been the most talked about team in the NBA all year long. Through the first few weeks of the season, the chatter was about what is wrong with this talented team. In the past couple weeks, however, the media has been speaking of how unstoppable this team is. I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Clearly, this is a team that is difficult to handle because of their amazing talent, but they do have a couple weaknesses that need to be addressed. Dwyane Wade wasn’t performing up to expectations at the beginning of the season, but he has now scored at least 25 points in each of the last seven games. LeBron James has been consistently good this year, and Chris Bosh has quietly had a decent start to the year too.

The Heat have gotten solid productivity from guys like James Jones and Carlos Arroyo. The biggest weakness of this team is probably defending a point guard that can penetrate the lane well.

The Knicks started the season 3-8, but they have since gone 13-2. Amar’e Stoudemire has been even better than advertised so far this year. he has now scored 30 or more points in nine straight contests. Raymond Felton has been a huge key to the success of this team as well. Felton is averaging nine assists per game, and he has seven double-doubles in the last 10 games. Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari are also having a great start to the season.

The Knicks have weapons all over the court, and they are a little less reliant on the three-point jumper than they have been in the past few years.

New York has had some trouble on the glass so far this year. As a team, the Knicks are still allowing 107 points per game, so the defense is still not where it needs to be. This team has some room for improvement, but they have definitely made a major step in the right direction so far this year.

Heat at Knicks Betting Odds and Line Movement

The New York Knicks opened as 4.5-point home underdogs, according to NBA odds, but the public has been siding with Miami in this one. The Heat are now five-point favorites. The posted total opened at 209, but it has since edged up to 209.5.

Miami Heat at New York Knicks Betting Trends

The Heat are 5-0 ATS in their last five road games
The Heat are 8-1 ATS in their last nine games overall
The Knicks are 4-1 ATS in their last five home games
The Knicks are 18-7-1 ATS in their last 26 games overall
The ‘over’ is 6-1 in the last seven meetings between these two teams

NBA Picks: Heat at Knicks Predictions

I expect this to be a very intriguing game. The Knicks are coming off a very disheartening last-second loss to the Celtics, while the Heat are playing with a ton of confidence right now. I think this game will be close most of the way, but the Heat will pull away at the end. I think the Heat will cover the spread in this one.

Doc’s Sports has three straight Big Play winners for NBA handicapping and they will have a hot card of NBA picks for Friday that will include a 6-Unit NBA Game of the Month. For this week only, one-day and one-week packages are half price. Now is a great time to check out Doc’s picks!