NBA Prediction: The Los Angeles Lakers Will Lose To the Miami Heat on March 10

There, I said it.

The Los Angeles Lakers will play the Miami Heat on the road at the American Airlines Arena on Thursday, March 10.

This is the second and final meeting between these two teams in the regular season, with the first game having been played on Christmas Day last year at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The Heat won that game against the Lakers by the score of 96-80.

Going into this game, the Heat have lost five games in a row and six out of their last seven in the midst of their worst losing streak of the season.

The Lakers, on the other hand, are on an eight-game winning streak and playing some of their best basketball all season.

So the natural inclination for most pundits would be to predict a Lakers victory given their recent brilliant play compared with the Heat's ongoing struggles on the court.

However, those that take this easy and obvious route are missing one major point:

The Miami Heat are a better basketball team than the Los Angeles Lakers.

Despite their recent issues on the court, and perhaps off it as well, as Heat coach Erik Spoelstra recently admitted that two of his team's players were in tears crying after their loss to the Chicago Bulls, the Heat simply have more basketball talent than the Lakers.

LeBron James is perhaps the best basketball player on the planet, and has been for the past few years, having taken the mantle from Lakers great Kobe Bryant himself.

This is not surprising given that Bryant is six years older than James, and that Kobe has been in decline for the past few years while LeBron has yet to reach his peak.

Coupled with him on the Heat is Dwyane Wade, himself arguably the best basketball player on the planet as well, and you wonder if he and James are constantly oscillating the ownership of that title depending on who is playing better that day.

Of course besides Wade and James is Chris Bosh, a highly underrated big man that has yet to find his comfort zone in the Heat's offense. 

Though the Lakers have a more balanced and experienced bench, the discrepancy in the talent of the Heat's starters with the Lakers', even when considering two of the Heat's starters are bona fide scrubs, more than tips the balance of the scales in the favor of Miami.

Even when considering the Heat's recent confidence issues and late-game struggles, there is no doubt that come Thursday, Miami will once again show Los Angeles who is the real King of the NBA, and the Heat will beat the Lakers once again to sweep the season series.

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