In a crucial early midday matchup between the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks, the Heat will continue their road trip and look to pick up their third straight win. Miami is just .5 games above the seventh seed Hawks in the Eastern Conference standings.
The winner of this game will be the difference between sixth and seventh place between each team. They have both won six of their last 10 games and coming off impressive come from behind victories.
Tyler Herro’s heroics came through in the clutch for the Heat to take down the Orlando Magic on Thursday night. In a game where offense was hard to come by, Herro’s 20 points on 8 of 17 shooting and game-winner with .5 left on the shot clock propelled Miami to the win. Bam Adebayo will look to put together a bounce back performance in Atlanta, after scoring just 4 points on 2 of 10 shooting in the previous game.
It was one of the worst, if not the worst, offensive outings of Adebayo’s up and down 2024-25 season. Although, the big man still added 9 rebounds, 7 assists and 5 blocks. Miami got standout outings out of Jaime Jaquez Jr., Terry Rozier and Alec Burks.
Jimmy Butler’s status will have him remain OUT, as he was recently shut down for the Heat’s next two road games. He is expected to make his anticipated return on New Year’s Day.
The Hawks have a loaded injury report of their own, with their star Trae Young headlining as questionable. Tip-off is set for 3:00 PM EST this afternoon and nationally televised on NBA TV.
Injury Report (at the time of this publishing):
Miami Heat:
- Terry Rozier (knee) — PROBABLE
- Pelle Larsson (ankle) — PROBABLE
- Nikola Jovic (ankle) — QUESTIONABLE
- Jimmy Butler (return to conditioning) — OUT
- Josh Richardson (heel) — OUT
- Dru Smith (achilles) — OUT
Atlanta Hawks:
- Trae Young (heel) — QUESTIONABLE
- Bogdan Bogdanovic (leg) — QUESTIONABLE
- Dyson Daniels (illness) — QUESTIONABLE
- Kobe Bufkin (shoulder) — OUT
- Onyeka Okongwu (knee) — OUT
- Cody Zeller (not with team) — OUT
Projected Starting 5 (subject to change):
Miami Heat:
- Tyler Herro, G
- Duncan Robinson, G
- Jaime Jaquez Jr, F
- Haywood Highsmith, F
- Bam Adebayo, C
Atlanta Hawks:
- Trae Young, G
- Dyson Daniels, G
- Jalen Johnson, F
- Zaccharie Risacher, F
- Clint Capela, C
Broadcast Info:
- Tipoff: 3:00 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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It will be interesting to see if:
THE “JIMMY BUTLER SITUATION”
Heat president Pat Riley implied at the team’s 2023-2024 end-of-season news conference in May that Butler’s lack of availability in recent seasons would play a role in the team’s decision-making process on whether to offer him a new deal.
“That’s a big decision on our part to commit those kinds of resources unless you have somebody who’s going to be there and available every single night. That’s the truth. We have to look at making that kind of commitment and when do we do it. We don’t have to do it until 2025, actually.”
As far as Jimmy Butler is concerned, it seems to me the answer is very simple.