In the midst of a five-game road trip, the Miami Heat travel to Utah to take on the Jazz, with tip-off set to be at 9:30 p.m. EST.
The Heat are coming off an ugly 127-110 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, who more than doubled the Heat up from 3-point range (20-9). Portland was led by Shaedon Sharpe’s 27 points, outscoring the Heat in the second half, 63-47.
Miami is 1-2 on its current road trip, with its lone win coming in Sacramento earlier this week. The Jazz, meanwhile, are losers of four of their last five, including a 126-109 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in their most recent affair.
Utah is currently 15-30, four games back of the Dallas Mavericks for the No. 12 seed and 5.5 games back of the Los Angeles Clippers for the fourth-and-final play-in spot. It is two wins away from matching last year’s win total (17). Keyonte George is blossoming into a legitimate star, averaging 24.4 points, 6.7 assists and 1.1 steals on 45.9 percent shooting, 38.3 percent from 3-point range and 90.4 percent from the free-throw line.
This game will mark the first of two matchups between the Heat and Jazz. What are your bold(est) predictions?! Let us know in the comments!
Injury Report (at the time of this publishing):
Utah Jazz:
- Elijah Harkless (G-League) — OUT
- Walker Kessler (shoulder) — OUT
- Kevin Love (knee) — OUT
- Lauri Markkanen (return to conditioning) — QUESTIONABLE
- Georges Niang (foot) — OUT
- Jusuf Nurkic (illness) — DOUBTFUL
- John Tonje (G-League) — OUT
- Oscar Tshiebwe (G-League) — OUT
Miami Heat:
- Kel’el Ware (hamstring) — QUESTIONABLE
- Pelle Larsson (finger) — PROBABLE
- Davion Mitchell (shoulder) — QUESTIONABLE
- Norman Powell (back) — QUESTIONABLE
- Tyler Herro (ribs) — OUT
- Jahmir Young (G-League) — OUT
- Vlad Goldin (G-League) — OUT
- Terry Rozier (not with team) — OUT
Projected Starting 5 (subject to change):
Utah Jazz:
- Keyonte George, G
- Svi Mykhailiuk, G
- Cody Williams, F
- Ace Bailey, F
- Kyle Filipowski, F/C
Miami Heat:
- Davion Mitchell, G
- Norman Powell, G
- Pelle Larsson, G/F
- Andrew Wiggins, F
- Bam Adebayo, C
Broadcast Info:
- Tipoff: 9:30 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)
Come back to Hot Hot Hoops at game time to join our GameThread and chat about the game live with other Heat fans!
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Jovic has to be the least aggressive player I’ve ever seen. Soft doesn’t fully describe this guy. The reason his contract is worse than Rozier’s is because Rozier isn’t playing and Jovic is! We’re talking 6-10, 240 of complete feebleness. He’s had a whole half season of opportunities to step up. Agree…maybe Joker will convince Denver to bail his wimpy ass out.
He needs 6 weeks of mma or Muay Thai training over the summer. It will either make him or break him. For his size, he should be scoring and rebounding, not sitting on the end of the bench scratching his whatumacallems.
no hes been given enough chances send him east of the ocean hed be first team all serbian
You gonna cover the $62.4M? I know Riley isn’t going to.
Jovic plays terrible right now, but no doubt he is a quality player. He has a rare combination of length and playmaking abilities.
What is missing right now, is aggression, stiffness, will, confidence.
I don’t know if he will ever be a good basketball player in NBA, but certainly has talent to be. And his contract is not bad yet. It will be in October.
As he is, he shouldn’t play right now. But there is not another big available, so he must, and at position, which is not his natural position. the results are bad for the team and him.
Not to apology him ,but lets see how other players performed this season:
-Bam-several weeks was pretty bad.
-Herro-not available, when he was, he played well, but team didnt.
-Wiggins-up and down the whole season.
-Mitchell-good start, he cooled off after 20 games.
-Kas- a typical rookie.
-Simone.-good start, terrible for 10 or so games, and good again now.
-JJJ great start, he cooled down a bit lately, but he brings positive value, when not injured, and there is not a big in the rim.
-Ware- average to great to bad to average.
-Dru good to bad to unplayable.
-Keshad- when he played he was mostly average.
-Gardner-when he played was great.
elle and Powell were players playing more or less all the time at desired level.
Jovic, of course, goes from bad to average to bad to unplayable.
I’m concerned that throwing him to the dogs while Ware is out before he finds his mojo, will either make or break him. If it breaks him, Miami will be stuck with an albatross contract for 4 years.
I think your comments are very fair. You always liked Jovic or at least hoped he’d do well. I like Wiggins and root for him. I’m not comparing the players, just comparing our underlying sentiments and how they color our comments. I am just saying I see where you’re coming from. I do think that despite your feelings, you are able to be pretty objective and I feel like I am also capable of being fair.
I agree with you. Ngl I think his confidence is very low now, and he has the worst layup package on the team, fonzi is a better rebounder then him off the eye test. Not to mention his shot fell all the way off, which was supposed to be his main shot diet. Idk what’s going on with him, hopefully he gets better, cuz right now he looks trash on the court. Rozier might be better if he was playing, but that doesn’t change the fact that both of them are weighing us down.