The Miami Heat are looking to continue their winning ways when they host the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night.
GAME STORY
The Miami Heat (28-16) will continue their home-stand as they host the Portland Trail Blazers (18-25) on Wednesday night in Miami.
The Heat will again be without Kyle Lowry as they will have to wait a bit longer until their combination of Lowry-Butler-Adebayo play together. The Heat beat the Toronto Raptors in a hard-fought win Monday night in Adebayo’s return where he scored 14 points and grabbed 9 rebounds. Now, he will get to square off again Jusuf Nurkic, a big body — but Portland’s only big.
The Blazers welcomed CJ McCollum back to their lineup after a long absence on Monday. They are still without Damian Lillard, but they got a win in Orlando with this squad. The Heat and Blazers played a few weeks ago in Portland where Miami won the game, but it ended with a scuffle between Nurkic and Tyler Herro. Although at this point, that should be water under the bridge.
The Heat will need to contain Anfernee Simons who really hurt them in the last matchup and has been on a big of a tear as he has led the Blazers without Lillard and McCollum. That will be the KEY MATCHUP: Afernee Simons against Jimmy Butler. I think they’ll move Duncan to guard Litte, Gabe on CJ and Butler will take Simons. And we will see how it goes.
ODDS: FiveThirtyEight gives the Heat a 80% chance to win the game.
HEAT VS BLAZERS: WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19 AT 7:30 PM.
INACTIVE/INJURIES
MIAMI:
- Victor Oladipo: out (knee; surgery rehab)
- Kyle Lowry: out (personal reasons)
- KZ Okpala: out (wrist)
- Markieff Morris: out (health and safety protocols)
BLAZERS:
- Damian Lillard: out (abdominal)
- Norman Powell: doubtful (H/S Protocols)
- Cody Zeller: out (knee)
- Larry Nance Jr.: out (knee)
LINEUPS
BROADCAST INFO
TV: Bally Sports Sun, NBA League Pass
RADIO: The Ticket 790AM & The HEAT Radio Network (Jason Jackson, Ruth Riley Hunter)
SPANISH RADIO: WAQI 710AM & The HEAT Spanish Radio Network (José Pañeda, Joe Pujala)
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