After a long preseason the NBA regular tournament 2018-19 begins for the Washington Wizards when they host the Miami Heat at the Capital One Arena in Washington D.C. The two teams are coming together after achieving good results in the preseason friendly matches.
The home team, Wizards, has reached the playoffs in four of the past five seasons, but fails to make it past the second round once it is there. The good news was that the door opened for several contenders in the Eastern Conference when LeBron James moved to the West to play with the Los Angeles Lakers. With LeBron out of the Cavaliers, the Boston Celtics are the strongest rival to beat in this year’s Eastern Conference.
The Wizards added Dwight Howard to their squad just this season to strengthen people like Wall, Bradley Beal and Otto Porter Jr., which makes them one of the favorite teams to go far in this tournament.
The Miami Heat, meanwhile, is looking to improve their performance, as they lost their first game against Orlando Magic just last night. The Heat was very successful in the Southeast Division in the last campaign, finishing with 11 wins and 5 losses against the Hawks, Hornets, Magic and their rival in turn, the Wizards. They had a good regular phase and they took the Division championship with a victory more than Washington.
Right now, Miami is suffering with several injuries in its staff and we will be left with the desire to see players like James Johnson, Dion Waiter, Justise Winslow and Wayne Ellington.
Recall that last season they met four times with two wins for each, the most recent on March 10 with a 128-102 advantage for the Heat.
On the other hand, the divisions acquire a much smaller importance in the NBA than in other sports like the NFL or the MLB, but it is still a factor to consider when betting. The Southeast Division was particularly weak last tournament, so Washington has the opportunity to build a formidable season if it takes care of the games against the few strong rivals of his conference.