After a one-game stint in Mexico City, the Miami Heat return home Monday to take on the visiting Sacramento Kings at 8:15 p.m. EST inside Kaseya Center. Every NBA team will be in action Monday, with each game starting 15 minutes apart from one another, which is the reason behind the later start.
Nevertheless, the Heat are coming off a 118-98 win over the Washington Wizards in Mexico City Saturday. It was Bam Adebayo’s best performance of the season, scoring 32 points on 12-of-24 shooting and 3-of-5 from 3-point range with 14 rebounds and a pair of assists.
Though his task won’t get any easier. Kings center Domantas Sabonis picked up right where he left off last season and is coming off a 17-point, 20-rebound, 10-assist triple-double in their overtime win against the Toronto Raptors. He’s leading the NBA in rebounds (13.0) after doing so each of the last two seasons, in addition to averaging 21.5 points and 6.3 assists through six games.
Miami is victors in three of its last four, but it’s all come against the East’s bottom-feeders in Charlotte, Detroit and Washington. This will be its third game at home against a likely playoff foe in Sacramento, where it will need to shake its troubling trend of losing to good teams.
It was 14-16 with a minus-0.9 NET Rating against the Western Conference last season, though it beat Sacramento twice by nine and 11 points, respectively. They always seem to be nailbiters, but the Heat have won four of the last five, six of the last eight and seven of the last 10 against the Kings. Will that trend continue Monday?
Injury Report (at the time of this publishing):
Miami Heat:
- Jaime Jaquez Jr. (illness) — QUESTIONABLE
Sacramento Kings:
- Kevin Huerter (illness) — QUESTIONABLE
- Devin Carter (shoulder) — OUT
- Orlando Robinson (MCL) — OUT
Projected Starting 5 (subject to change):
Miami Heat:
- Terry Rozier, G
- Tyler Herro, G
- Jimmy Butler, F
- Nikola Jovic, F
- Bam Adebayo, C
Sacramento Kings:
- De’Aaron Fox, G
- DeMar DeRozan, G
- Kevin Huerter, G
- Keegan Murray, F
- Damontas Sabonis, C
Broadcast Info:
- Tipoff: 8:15 PM EST
- TV: NBA TV & FanDuel Sports Network 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)
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This will be a good test for Bam. I really like Sacto team. Sabonis, Fox and DeRozan are a pretty good group.
3 all stars