Miami Heat @ Orlando Magic NBA Free Pick & Preview

Miami Heat @ Orlando Magic NBA Free Pick & Preview: The Heat and the Magic might very well be the most talented teams in the East. The Heat obviously have the Big 3, and the Magic, after their mid-season trade, have upped their player inventory with the likes of Jason Richardson, Hedo Turkoglu, and Gilbert Arenas. This should be a big battle, as the winner of the East will almost certainly have to get through Florida, one city or another.

Orlando had a nice little spurt there for a while right after the traded players got comfortable, but over the last 10, well I’m not that impressed. They’ve lost to Memphis (who’s playing decent), Chicago (who’s good), Detroit (who’s bad), and Boston (who’s good). They’ve won 6 games, but not one of those victories came against an opponent with a winning record. You have Cleveland, Indiana, Houston, Toronto, Philadelphia, and Minnesota. That’s not a group of wins that garners many rave reviews from me.

The Heat have had some ups and downs this year, but they’ve played well with their Big 3 in the line-up, and while the Heat don’t have a guy that can guard Dwight Howard, the big guy shouldn’t be able to finagle a win out of the game all by himself.

The Magic beat the Heat by 9 last time these two teams played, also in Orlando, but that was with solid play from Rashard Lewis and Brandon Bass (9 for 12 with 18 points) – and Bass won’t be playing in this game, and Rashard was kicked to Washington DC. I don’t know how Hedo Turkoglu is going to match-up with LeBron James. I expect the Heat to get on a nice little winning streak here, upwards of 15-20 games – yes, they’ll start to figure it all out, and I think it starts with a big win – in this case, over Orlando.

Miami Heat (+1.5) @ Orlando Magic (TNT)