The Milwaukee Bucks crushed the Miami Heat on Monday to secure a 2-0 lead in the first round and will attempt to go up three games on Thursday at American Airlines Arena. Miami’s stars have been smothered by Milwaukee’s lockdown defense, but they’ll need to figure things out to avoid falling too far behind. Let’s go over the best betting options at DraftKings Sportsbook.
Heat vs. Bucks, 7:30 p.m. ET, TNT
Pick ATS: Bucks -1.5
Home-court advantage could help Miami, but it’s hard to believe that the Heat are just 1.5-point underdogs after losing by 34 points in Game 2. Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo are shooting less than 35% from the field and haven’t shown that they are close to figuring things out on offense. Milwaukee is also attacking hunting weak defenders like Duncan Robinson with tremendous success. At least two of Miami’s players are major liabilities on defense at all times, so the Bucks have a good chance to win and cover the spread.
Player Prop: Giannis AntJimmy Butler O39.5 Pts + Rebs + Asts (-113)
This has to be a Jimmy Buckets game, right? Either the Heat are going to bow out in four games or Butler is going to have to carry them back into this series. So Game 3 feels like the perfect chance for Butler to show us some of that 2020 playoff magic. There are a few lines I like for Butler tonight — O6.5 assists (-127) feels safe as well. If you’re feeling crazy, chasing the Butler triple-double at +900 is always a fun sweat. I’ll take the Pts/Rebs/Asts total and hope Butler does a little bit of everything and figures it out on offense.
— Ben Zweiman
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