(Mandatory credit: Imagn Images)
After a short two-game road trip that had the Miami Heat go 1-1, they are back home to host the Utah Jazz on the second night of a back-to-back.
Miami is coming off a Super Bowl Sunday win over the tanking Washington Wizards and looking to secure a second straight victory for the first time in over two weeks. They are now at a 28-26 overall record as they matchup against another struggling team in the 16-37 and 13th seed Jazz. Utah has also lost eight of their last 10 matchups and suffered a 147-116 blowout loss to the Heat a few weeks back.
This recent trade deadline saw the Jazz make a surprising acquisition with former Memphis Grizzlies star Jarren Jackson Jr. Utah now has arguably the tallest frontcourt in the entire league with Jackson, and 7-footers Lauri Markkanen and Jusuf Nurkic. This would be a perfect matchup for coach Erik Spoelstra to hopefully match the size with extended Bam Adebayo-Kel’el Ware minutes again.
Spoelstra finally back leaned into that double big combo in Washington, and the results looked encouraging again. Adebayo led the Heat with 22 points, 8 rebounds and 5 steals— along with Ware adding a 19 and 14 double-double in 30 minutes of run off the bench. Miami outscored the Wizards by a combined 63 points in Adebayo and Ware’s minutes on the floor.
The Heat have not released their injury report yet, but Norman Powell’s availability will be worth monitoring after leaving that previous game early on Sunday with back pain. It’s also unclear if Pelle Larsson will be able to return after being sidelined with an elbow contusion.
Injury Report (at the time of this publishing):
Utah Jazz:
- Keyonte George (ankle) — OUT
- Walker Kessler (shoulder) — OUT
Miami Heat:
- NOT YET SUBMITTED.
Projected Starting 5 (subject to change):
Utah Jazz:
- Isaiah Collier, G
- Ace Bailey, G
- Jaren Jackson Jr., F
- Lauri Markkanen, F
- Jusuf Nurkic, C
Miami Heat:
- Davion Mitchell, G
- Norman Powell, G/F
- Myron Gardner, G/F
- Andrew Wiggins, F
- Bam Adebayo, 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)
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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Think this is a really big game – Heat have a rest disadvantage/are on a B2B, missing possibly Norm, Pelle (and Herro).
Jazz have the #30 ranked defense and are just 6-17 on the road this season, but those wins include against San Antonio (without Fox) and CLE and BOS at full strength. They also took OKC to overtime on the road.
This is the last game of a 5 game road trip for the Jazz and they’ve gone 1-3 in that span – a win vs IND and all close losses to TOR, ATL, and ORL (where they were leading going into the 4Q and sat all their starters). A big win here could show Miami is headed in a different direction than ATL and ORL but this could also be a loss if the Jazz go all out and Miami has tired legs. Mentality of the team will be really interesting to watch
Agree. I don’t like that Norm is going to miss while Herro still isn’t back. This game is significantly sneakier than it should be.
This needs to be the Ware-Kaspar show.
Totally, big games for both. Ware has to improve on defense. I like the move to start Fontecchio against his former team. Heat will always have a good defense with Davion/Wiggins/Bam trio, just need to find the offense tonight
Another tanking team drops by with their second best player seated. We should take this one easily.