Heat NBA Championship Odds: Is Miami Poised for a Finals Run?

Miami Heat NBA Championship Odds

Miami Heat Analysis

The Miami Heat will have home court advantage at FTX Arena, or “the Kennel,” as they refer to it, because they have a bunch of dogs on this gritty defense-first team.

The Heat have a Defensive Player of the Year frontrunner in Bam Adebayo, whose incredible defensive versatility paired with savvy veteran defenders like Jimmy Butler, P.J. Tucker and Kyle Lowry have helped the Heat to the fourth-best Defensive Rating (109.2) in the NBA.

The Heat are the top seed in the East, but they are priced with the third or fourth-shortest odds to win the conference around +450. The biggest flaw on this team is that there is no superstar who can carry them, but the Heat are the top seed because of their incredible depth from lesser known players (such as Gabe Nnamdi Vincecnt, Max Strus and Caleb Martin) that has helped them survive plenty of absences from their starters throughout the regular season.

The Heat’s half-court offense is their weakest link, especially when teams put size on Butler and Adebayo. In clutch time, Miami needs Tyler Herro, its best three-level scorer, to be in the game for his offense without being played off the floor defensively.

Victor Oladipo, who scored 40 points in the season-ending loss to the Magic while most rotation players rested, could be the ultimate wild card for Miami. We'll see how they handle an interesting first-round matchup against Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks.