The road trip continues with a matchup in Washington D.C.
After a tough loss where the Miami Heat had the lead most of the night, they now move on to visit the Washington Wizards in the nations capital. The Wizards are a respectable team, supporting an 8-7 record, good for the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference. Miami isn’t far behind, as they go into tonight with a 7-8 record and the 10th seed in the East. A win tonight would be big for Miami to even up the records between the two, and come closer to avoiding a play-in seed.
It is not going to come easy though for the Heat, as both Bradley Beal and Kyle Kuzma are two players for Washington that can get it going real quick. They are offensive threats and with the Miami defense not being nearly as sharp as they should be, it could wreck havoc. The most important thing is for Miami to be consistent tonight.
The Heat were on the wrong side of a 21-0 run in the 3rd quarter last game against Toronto. If they come out with a lead tonight, they cannot take their foot off the gas. A huge question mark for Miami is the availability from the front court. Bam Adebayo, Caleb Martin, and Dewayne Dedmon are all questionable with nagging injuries. With Adebayo sitting out the last game, it was Martin who stepped up on the boards.
He had 9 rebounds on the night in a game where the Heat got absolutely destroyed in the rebounding category. It could be possible that him as an undersized PF and matching up with bigger players in the league could cause some wear and tear on his body, as this isn’t the first time he has been listed as questionable this season.
With no Tyler Herro with the team it is even more pivotal to see what Adebayo’s status closer to tip off will be. Miami desperately missed Adebayo and all his abilities in the last game, as he has proved more and more how important he is to the team in his absence.
Either way, the Heat have guys who can step up and fill in to be productive. Nikola Jovic got his first career start the other night and he came out hot with 11 points in 7 minutes in the 1st quarter. If Adebayo and/or Martin aren’t good to go, expect Jovic to get another chance. Depending on what combination of the questionable Adebayo, Dedmon, and Martin play, maybe even 7 footer Orlando Robinson can get some run in.
Miami needs to find a consistent rhythm tonight and not give up any huge runs to a talented offensive Wizards team. That stems from being smart with the turnovers, and being aggressive on the glass.
This is a banged up Heat team right now, but the goal will always remain the same; next man up.
Injury Report:
Heat
- Bam Adebayo, questionable
- Dewayne Dedmon, questionable
- Caleb Martin, questionable
- Tyler Herro, out
- Udonis Haslem, out
- Victor Oladipo, out
- Omer Yurtseven, out
Wizards
- Jordan Goodwin, questionable
- Delon Wright, out
- Isaiah Todd, out
- Jordan Schakel, out
- Johnny Davis, out
- Vernon Carey Jr., out
Probable Starters:
Heat
- Jimmy Butler
- Caleb Martin
- Bam Adebayo
- Max Strus
- Kyle Lowry
Wizards
- Deni Avdija
- Kyle Kuzma
- Kristaps Porzingis
- Bradley Beal
- Monte Morris
ODDS (via FanDuel)
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Broadcast Info:
Tipoff: 7:00pm EST
TV: Bally Sports Sun (Eric Reid, John Crotty)
Radio: AM 560 Sports WQAM & The HEAT Radio Network (Jason Jackson)
Spanish Radio: WAQI 710 AM & The HEAT Spanish Radio Network (José Pañeda)