The Miami Heat are playing their best basketball of the season.
The Orlando Magic are, too.
The two intrastate rivals square off in a pivotal game Saturday night inside Kia Center in Miami, Fla. Tip-off will be at 8:00 p.m. EST.
Coming off a 112-105 win over the Milwaukee Bucks, the Heat are winners of seven-straight and are 9-2 since the All-Star break. Orlando, who sleptwalked through an overtime battle against the Washington Wizards on the second night of a back-to-back, has won six-straight and is 9-3 since the All-Star break.
As a result, both teams are tied for the No. 5 seed in the East. Orlando is one game ahead of the Heat in the loss column and owns the head-to-head tiebreaker, besting the Heat in all four matchups this season.
Both teams are battling myriad injuries, but this could be a huge game that decides the No. 5 seed in the East with four weeks left on the season. Can Miami continue its winning ways? Or will it be the Franz Wagner-less Magic who persevere? Let us know your prediction in the comments!
Injury Report (at the time of this publishing):
Orlando Magic:
- Franz Wagner (ankle)
- Anthony Black (Lat)
- Jonathan Isaac (knee)
- Colin Castleton (G-League) — OUT
- Alex Morales (G-League) — OUT
Miami Heat:
- Andrew Wiggins (toe) — OUT
- Norman Powell (groin) — QUESTIONABLE
- Tyler Herro (quad) — QUESTIONABLE
- Nikola Jovic (back) — OUT
- Keshad Johnson (G-League) — OUT
- Jahmir Young (G-League) — OUT
- Terry Rozier (not with team) — OUT
Projected Starting 5 (subject to change):
Orlando Magic:
- Jalen Suggs, G
- Desmond Bane, G
- Tristan da Silva, F
- Paolo Banchero, F
- Wendell Carter Jr., C
Miami Heat:
- Davion Mitchell, G
- Kasparas Jakucionis, G
- Pelle Larsson, F
- Myron Gardner, F
- Bam Adebayo, F/C
Broadcast Info:
- Tipoff: 8:00 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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Excerpts from an article in allucanheat
Norman Powell’s path to locking up a Heat extension is now blatantly obvious
“If Norman Powell can embrace a familiar role as a super sixth man for the Miami Heat down the stretch and emerge as a key part of locking up a 5th or 6th seed in the Eastern Conference, it would likely all but cement his chances of earning a contract extension with the team this summer.”
The only problem is, that could be a tough sell for a player who just earned All-Star honors”…
“The good news is that Powell has excelled in this role before. If this is a move that Spo elects to experiment with when he returns from injury, it’s already been proven that, when he’s motivated, Powell has the ability to be one of the best sixth men in the league.
If he can find a path back to that form, there’s no question that he can not only emerge as the final boost this Heat team needs to break out of the Play-In Tournament mediocrity in the East, but that he can also go a long way in solidifying his chances of getting that contract extension this summer.”
From now on, every game is a must win game. Sooner or later the Heat will loose a game, but please not this one.
This is a must win game .
Official now. Herro and Powell both available tonight.
Great news! The team needs everyone available down the stretch. I wonder what starting line-up will be?
Really curious how they choose to operate with both of them.
Feels like having both on the court together could be too much or a liability defensively to over come.
And if you do operate, do you go small and pull Pelle, or run no PG and pull Davion?
Orlando is a tall team. I think Ware and Bam may start. Mitchell, Powell or Larsson odd man out. Will be more complicated when Wiggins returns. Heat will have the luxury of a very deep bench.
Big game today. If Orlando wins again, it’s kind of hard to see the Heat finishing in the 5th spot.
Including today, Miami has a tough 7 game stretch against Orlando, @Charlotte, Lakers, @Houston, San Antonio and @Cleveland twice. If the Heat wins 4 of 7 it will be 42-32.
After that stretch, Miami closes out the season with 8 games. 5 of those games will be against winning teams, including: Philadelphia, Boston, @ Toronto twice and Atlanta. The other 3 games are against Indiana and Washington twice. If it then wins 4 of 8, it will end the season at 46-36.
Best case scenario, the Heat will win at least 8 of 15 and have a firm grip on the #5 or #6 spot. Worse case scenario, it win 7 or fewer games and will fall back into a being play-in team …again.
I have faith the guys will give it their best effort. I see them winning at least 8 of 15 and earning a playoff spot.
GO HEAT!!!
It is very possible that the Toronto games will determine who is in the playoffs and who is in the play-in. I hope we stay on this current roll, but we really need to be closer to whole down the stretch.
I will checking my phone and hope to be back home for the second half. Huge game. Win and we’re in 5th. Lose and we drop to 7th, percentage points behind Toronto.