Skidding Heat host Rockets

Basketball Betting Lines

02/09/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat hope a return to south Florida will cure their recent woes, as they try to halt a five-game losing streak Tuesday versus the Houston Rockets at AmericanAirlines Arena.

Miami has fallen into a virtual tie with Milwaukee for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, and is coming off Saturday's 95-91 setback at Chicago in the finale of a winless three-game road trip. Wade recorded 20 points and Jermaine O'Neal added 24 and a game-best 16 rebounds for the Heat, who got just six points from Michael Beasley.

"Our focus right now has to be staying together, our purity and commitment to each other and the team and to hold our ground until we turn the tide. This was a tough loss," said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.

The Heat, who are 13-12 as the host, will try to stop a two-game slide at home and is 9-12 against teams from the Western Conference this season. Wade, meanwhile, has scored in double figures in 145 consecutive games, a team record. He owns 429 double-figure scoring games in his career and is closing in on Alonzo Mourning's team record of 442 straight games.

Houston is coming off a tough home loss versus the Philadelphia 76ers in which Aaron Brooks recorded 34 points and tied a career-high with a 6-of-11 performance from three-point territory. Brooks posted 17 points in the second quarter for Houston, which was outscored by a 32-19 margin in the final stanza.

"That was a tough loss," said Houston coach Rick Adelman. "We didn't play well at all offensively. In the fourth quarter you have got to make stops, and we didn't really stop them in the whole fourth quarter."

Kyle Lowry netted 14 points and Carl Landry added 13 and 10 rebounds in the loss, Houston's fifth in its last eight contests. Lowry left the game in the third quarter with a sprained left ankle and is expected to miss Tuesday's game. Trevor Ariza could also miss tonight's tilt in Miami with an injured hip. Ariza was forced to exit the game in the final moments of the fourth quarter.

Saturday's loss to Philadelphia snapped Houston's home winning streak in the month of February at 17 straight games. On a brighter note, the Rockets hold a 17-5 record in games following a loss this season and are 1 1/2 games off the final postseason berth in the West.

Miami recently defeated Houston, 115-106, on January 15 at the Toyota Center behind Wade's game-high 37 points and eight assists. Miami halted a three-game slide in the series with that win, but the Rockets have won five of the past seven meetings between the teams.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.