NBA Playoffs 2012: Miami Heat Heavy Favorites to Advance to East Finals

The Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat will begin their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series on Sunday afternoon at AmericanAirlines Arena, with the opening tip scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC.

Pinnacle Sports has released the Heat as 8.5-point home favorites in Game 1, while the total has jumped up a point to settle in at 189.5

Miami is also an overwhelming minus-900 favorite to eliminate Indiana and move on to the Eastern Conference Finals, which isn't very surprising due to the public's love affair with the "Big Three" of Chris Bosh, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.

The Heat advanced to this stage by moving past the New York Knicks in five games in their first-round series, with James leading the way in averaging 27.8 points per game. He scored a team-high 29 points in the 106-94 close-out victory as 11.5-point home favorites on Wednesday night.

Indiana had little trouble capturing a 4-1 series victory over the Orlando Magic, facing a franchise that was in disarray and playing without its All-Star center. The Pacers managed to cover three of the five games, while the "under" was 3-2 in those contests.

The level of competition goes up a few notches in this matchup, especially with the squad knowing it dropped three of four in the regular-season series. However, it should come in with a bit of confidence after coming away with a 105-90 win as 3.5-point home underdogs in the most recent meeting on March 26.

Sports bettors should definitely respect the Pacers due to that result, placing six players in double figures offensively, with the Heat having all three of their stars on the court to combine for 58 points.

I suggest not placing too much emphasis on that result when handicapping the series, as the Heat were at a major disadvantage due to playing the second game of a back-to-back situation on the road. Miami suffered a 103-87 blowout loss to Oklahoma City Thunder in a nationally-televised event the day before.

Prediction: Miami Heat sweep the series 

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