Miami Heat Host High Powered Hawks in NBA Play-In Tournament

The Miami Heat will be hosting the Atlanta Hawks in the first game of the NBA Play-In Tournament on Tuesday night with the opening tip coming at 7:30pm. The winner of this matchup will get the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs while the loser will face off against the winner of a game between the ninth and tenth seed to secure the final playoff spot. The Heat have the best record of the four teams in the play-in tournament,so they will have home court advantage in the first game, as well as the second game if needed.

Miami has gotten the best out of the Hawks in three of the four matchups this season, including the last two times the teamsfaced off in March. The Heat will also have home court advantage in this game which could play a huge factor given how poorly the Hawks have played on the road this season. Atlanta is a mediocre 17-24 this year away from home and will be walking into a sold-out Kaseya Center in Miami. The Heat have also been significantly better when playing at home. Miami’s role players have knocked down shots far more efficiently on their home court, which is something the Heat will need if they want to make it out of the play-in tournament.

It will be a battle of teams with very different philosophies on Tuesday night. The Atlanta Hawks’ high-powered offense ranks third in the NBA and averages over 118 points per game. Trying to slow them down will be Miami’s suffocating defense that allowed the second fewest points per game in the NBA this season. On the other end of the court will be a matchup of both team’s weaknesses. The Heat rank dead last in the NBA offensively while the Hawks sit at 26^th out of 30 teams defensively.

Miami will turn to its stars Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo to lead them and will hope for a scoring boost from Tyler Herro and some of the bench players. The biggest challenge for the Heat will be trying to contain the Hawks offense that has been on fire lately. The Hawks have averaged nearly 125 points per game over their last 10 regular season games. One important factor to keep an eye on is the health of Trae Young. The Hawks’ star guard is averaging 26.2 points and 10.2 assists per game but is nursing a groin injury that has him listed as day-to-day.

While losing this game won’t end the season for either the Hawks or the Heat, they will both be hoping to officially punch their ticket to the playoffs tonight. The Heat are currently favored by 4.5 points and a win would move them into the seventh seed for a series rematch against the Boston Celtics. The loser of this matchup between the Heat and Hawks will face the winner of Wednesday night’s game between the Chicago Bulls and the Toronto Raptors in a win or go home game on Friday night.