It is always a marquee matchup when LeBron James is back in South Beach, and the Miami Heat will be hosting his LA Lakers tonight. Both teams are in search of bounce back wins and looking to break through in the standings, going 5-5 in each of their last 10 games.
Since Jimmy Butler’s arrival, the Heat have gone 7-3 against James’ Lakers throughout this six-year build. These are two teams with championship pedigree and aspirations, as they met up in the 2020 NBA Finals where LA defeated the Heat in six games. However, the 2024-25 campaign has not treated these respective franchises well.
Miami has dropped two straight games and fallen back below the .500 mark with a 9-10 record. The Lakers are 12-9 and sitting at the ninth seed in the Western Conference.
The Heat are facing a decent sized injury report with Butler headlining that group. He is questionable due to his right knee tweak suffered in the loss to the Toronto Raptors over the weekend. He was unavailable in Miami’s loss to the Boston Celtics the following night, but hopefully received enough treatment to be good to go this evening.
The Anthony Davis and Bam Adebayo matchup will be intriguing to watch, as those two are one of the best two-way big men in the league. Davis has been putting up MVP numbers this season and taken on a bigger scoring load, so Adebayo will have his hands full as he try’s to get into a rhythm himself.
The Heat big man is in the midst of the worst shooting stretch of his entire career. He is shooting a career-low 41% from the field and nearly 30% on layup attempts. Over the last two games, Adebayo has shot a combined 11 of 31. He recently expressed concern in his slump, but iterated his is still confident that he will start to get going soon.
Miami’s entire rotation suffered an embarassing effort against Boston on Monday, where they were handed a near 20-point blowout loss. Can they respond in this marquee matchup against King James?
Tip off is set for 7:30 PM EST and nationally televised on NBA TV.
Injury Report (at the time of this publishing):
Miami Heat:
- Jimmy Butler (knee) Questionable
- Kevin Love (back) Questionable
- Josh Richardson (illness) Questionable
- Nikola Jovic (ankle) OUT
- Kel’el Ware (g-league) OUT
- Josh Christopher (g-league) — OUT
LA Lakers:
- Anthony Davis (plantar) — Probable
- Austin Reaves (pelvic) — Questionable
- Jalen Hood-Schifino (groin) — Questionable
- Bronny James (heel) — OUT
- Jaxson Hayes (ankle) — OUT
- Christian Wood (knee) — OUT
- Jarred Vanderbilt (foot) — OUT
Projected Starting 5 (subject to change):
Miami Heat:
- Tyler Herro, G
- Duncan Robinson, G
- Jimmy Butler, F
- Haywood Highsmith, F
- Bam Adebayo, C
LA Lakers:
- D’Angelo Russell, G
- Dalton Knecht, G
- LeBron James, F
- Rui Hachimura, F
- Anthony Davis, C
Broadcast Info:
- Tipoff: 7:30 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 game should give us even more of a gauge of where we stand. Go Heat!
Is there hope? My mind says give up this early unless a major move happens…but my heart >>>> 31-11, 8th seed….
Well, I ll watch.. without any expectations.
What are the keys to the game tonight?
3 – 6 players have a good scoring game , fast pace, defense, good 3pt shooting, and try not to get beat badly on the boards.