Following the viral Miami Heat – Houston Rockets brawl on Sunday night, the team received two days off to travel back for a three-game home stand in South Florida. Miami will open the first matchup tonight, against the tanking 5-28 New Orleans Pelicans.
The Pelicans are sitting at dead last in the entire association, sporting the NBA’s worst record and losers of ten straight games. They have been dealt with the injury bug all season long, and will be without their top two players in Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram this evening. They are coming off a 116-113 loss to the LA clippers in their previous game.
Despite the Pelicans disappointing campaign, they still have a talented backcourt that is capable of creating problems any given night. Dejounte Murray and CJ McCollum are a well respected duo, and each have had their moments against Miami over the years. McCollum put together a 33-point outing in New Orleans’ last matchup on Monday.
After sitting out five consecutive games while working himself back from a serious stomach illness, Jimmy Butler is good to go for the Heat tonight. His anticipated return comes in the midst of heavy trade speculation and rumors. All eyes will be on his overall energy and impact as both he and the Heat seem to be at crossroads regarding his impending contract extension.
Butler was noncommittal and quite defensive in his response to the media at yesterday’s practice when questioned about these most recent reports. When asked if the Shams Charania Christmas Day report that the Heat star prefers a trade out of Miami was true, he avoided giving an answer. His coy responses were questionable, but Butler made sure to express that he remains happy amidst all the drama.
https://x.com/hothothoops/status/1874208051022176469?s=46&t=70KMxl0CSvAS2niDn8R-TQ
Even with all these distractions and outside noise, the Heat have business to take care of tonight. They have a favorable schedule over the next ten-game stretch and are looking to regain momentum in the win column. Miami has dropped to the seventh seed in the East at a 16-14 record. Terry Rozier was given a one-game suspension after the Heat and Rockets scuffle, as Tyler Herro was fined.
Herro shared his thoughts on the altercation with media, and seems locked in to continue his All-Star caliber season.
https://x.com/hothothoops/status/1874210087658803664?s=46&t=70KMxl0CSvAS2niDn8R-TQ
The talented guard is now up to 24.0 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.2 assists on 48% shooting and 41% from 3-point range— all good for career high’s. He will get a lot of primary ball handling exposure tonight in Rozier’s absence and limited options in the guard depth, as Duncan Robinson, Dru Smith and Josh Richardson all remain on the injury report.
With Robinson listed as questionable and Butler returning, it will be interesting to see who receives that spot-start if Robinson is a no-go. Coach Erik Spoelstra could opt for Kevin Love again to go bigger, or perhaps insert one of Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Nikola Jovic in the frontcourt while Highsmith slides to the shooting guard position.
Injury Report (at the time of this publishing):
Miami Heat:
- Duncan Robinson (foot) — QUESTIONABLE
- Keshad Johnson (g-league) — QUESTIONABLE
- Terry Rozier (suspension) — OUT
- Josh Richardson (heel) — OUT
- Dru Smith (achilles) — OUT
New Orleans Pelicans:
- Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (ankle) — QUESTIONABLE
- Jose Alvarado (hamstring) — DOUBTFUL
- Karlo Matkovic (back) — OUT
- Zion Williamson (hamstring) — OUT
- Brandon Ingram (ankle) — OUT
Projected Starting 5 (subject to change):
Miami Heat:
- Tyler Herro, G
- Duncan Robinson, G
- Jimmy Butler, F
- Haywood Highsmith, F
- Bam Adebayo, C
New Orleans Pelicans:
- Dejounte Murray, G
- CJ McCollum, G
- Trey Murphy, F
- Herb Jones, F
- Yves Missi, C
Broadcast Info:
- Tipoff: 7:30 PM EST
- 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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Pelicans have been a huge disappointment this season. With Jimmy back, this game should be a win.
I have a feeling Jimmy won’t be traded before the deadline, not due to the lack of interest from the Heat side, but simply because we wouldn’t get any meaningful return (there’s more reasons why). In this situation I think it would be worth to at least try to strenghten the team with some trades and give it one last shot.
If we managed to address our size/rebounding/rim protection defficiencies by a trade and/or adding Ware to the rotation I think we wouldn’t be a bad team at all.
Trade Robinson and 2nd rounder for Vucevic. Rotate Bam, Vucevic, Ware and Jovic.
Rozier, Herro, Butler, Bam, Vucevic
Burks, Jaquez, Highsmith, Jovic, Ware
Stevens, Richardson, Larsson, Johnson, Love
Yes, if possible. I am not sure the Bulls would do it, though.
You have been teasing us with all these great trade ideas. But, day after day goes by with only crickets.
Meanwhile, we keep hovering around .500. And even playing teams at the bottom are scary for us that we will have our hands full and may even get embarrassed. But, we also beat a decent team every now and then.
We can never beat a healthy great team, but a good one, we can occasionally beat. That’s what makes the waiting in limbo so difficult. We are not that far away.,
That’s the way I’m wired. Always looking for quick simple solutions. It would be worth it. even if you need to give up a young player. Riley cannot sit idly by and have other teams improve while the Heat keeps doing the same thing over and over again…expecting different results. If Riley is going to keep Butler the rest of the season as he says, the least he can do is put a half decent team around him that has a chance of competing. Otherwise, just get it over with and tank it up! This one foot in and one foot out bullshit sucks!
It’s very hard to believe that doing nothing is our best move.
Amen! If you play, you play to win!