Game story:
After a heated (literally and figuratively) evening on Friday night in New Orleans the 31-25 Miami Heat are back at it tonight in Sacramento against the Kings. This will be the first matchup of the West Coast set of late night games for the Heat.
The NBA announced suspensions for Jimmy Butler, Nikola Jovic and Thomas Bryant in the aftermath of the Heat/Pelicans scuffle the other night. Butler and Jovic will miss one game each as Bryant will miss three for his one-on-one altercation with Jose Alvarado. Both Bryant and Jovic left the bench areas to get involved in the scuffle.
However, the Heat managed to finish the game out led by Bam Adebayo to pick up the win. Adebayo had 12 points in the fourth quarter and stepped up for the team when they needed him the most following Butler’s ejection in the beginning of that final quarter.
The good news regarding the Heat’s loaded injury report heading into tonight is that Terry Rozier has been upgraded to questionable. He’s been out for a few games with a knee injury that took place against the Boston Celtics a couple weeks ago.
Miami has won 7 of their last 10 games and three straight. The Kings are coming off a win against the LA Clippers last night and will be playing the second night of a back-to-back against the Heat. The King’s star big man Domantas Sabonis had a 17/15/12 triple double last night along with 33/7/6 from De’Aaron Fox. Harrison Barnes also contributed 22 points for them.
The Kings are sporting a 33-23 record and sitting at the fifth seed in the Western Conference. Miami is just 1.5 games out of the fifth seed in the East and hope to gain some more traction tonight. If the Heat’s season ended tonight, they would find themselves in the same exact position as last season. They are currently the seventh seed and in the NBA Play-In picture once again.
It seemed like after the Heat/Pelicans action went down last weekend that the team grew a bit closer. Herro mentioned that notion yesterday to the media. Coach Spoelstra stated that he liked how the team stuck up for one another and how they were able to respond on the court by securing the victory.
Butler didn’t agree with his one game suspension, but said the Heat have enough to win in Sacramento tonight.
There will for sure need to be a collective effort from the group to take down the young and strong core of the Kings. Fox and Sabonis are both capable of taking over basketball games, especially Fox in the clutch. Look for wing defender Caleb Martin to be on Fox to add some length into that matchup defensively, along with the star big man matchup of Adebayo vs Sabonis.
Tonight’s late night game will tip off at 10:00 PM EST nationally televised on NBA TV and also Bally Sports Florida.
Injury Report (at the time of this publishing):
Miami Heat:
- Tyler Herro (knee) — QUESTIONABLE
- Terry Rozier (knee) — QUESTIONABLE
- Orlando Robinson (back) — QUESTIONABLE
- Jimmy Butler (suspension) — OUT
- Nikola Jovic (suspension) — OUT
- Thomas Bryant (suspension) — OUT
- Josh Richardson (shoulder) — OUT
- Dru Smith (knee) — OUT
Sacramento Kings:
- NOT YET SUBMITTED.
Projected Starting 5 (subject to change):
Miami Heat:
- Tyler Herro, G
- Duncan Robinson, G
- Jaime Jaquez Jr, F
- Caleb Martin, F
- Bam Adebayo, C
Sacramento Kings:
- De’Aaron Fox, G
- Kevin Huerter, G
- Keegan Murray, F
- Harrison Barnes, F
- Domantas Sabonis, C
Betting Lines:
- Check the current odds out at FanDuel!
Broadcast Info:
- Tipoff: 10:00 PM EST
- TV: NBA TV & Bally Sports 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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Game day. Lets go for 4.
FYI Heat has the most minutes lost for players injuries for a playoff team. 3rd most actually for all teams. The first 2? Grizzlies and Blazers. And yet our team is 31-25 🤯💪🏻🔥🏀
Looks like no Tyler. So if we’re lucky, we gna get a good look at both Delon and Alondes 😁
That’s the plan.
From Fadeaway World, rating shooting guards in 5 tiers:
Tier 1 (Kings)Devin Booker, Donovan Mitchell, Anthony Edwards
tier 2 (All-Stars)Kyrie Irving, Tyler Herro, Desmond Bane, Terry Rozier, Dejounte Murray, Derrick White
tier 3 (Exceptional)Anfernee Simons, Malik Monk, Austin Reaves, Jalen Green, Cam Thomas, Josh Giddey, Jalen Suggs
tier 4 (Role Players)Donte DiVincenzo, Klay Thompson, Malik Beasley, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Jaden Ivey
tier 5 (X-Factors)Gary Trent Jr., Brandin Podziemski
Tier 2’s only all-star is Irving. The rest should be tier 3.
It wasn’t about literal all stars any more than Booker and Co are kings of anything. It was just a 1 through 5 rating of them. They could have called it princes or royalty or just tier 2.
I dont know.. Edwards is young and really good, he will be a superstar soon. The other two already failed mightily in the past when matters. Irving is playing right now better then all in tier 1.
Giddey is not a shooting guard.
Herro is where he belongs, and Rosier is probably tier 3 group member right now.
Kyrie should be In his own tier, better ball handling then Iverson, and is the most clutch out of the group. Antman is a close second, he might be superstar sooner then later, depending on how plays in the playoffs.
Edwards is a superstar today, imo
mitchell fa next year
I predict he’s off to NY
la with lebum i predict
If Herro can play, they have a chance. Have back-to-back against Portland tomorrow. If Herro isn’t available and since Butler and Jovic are back tomorrow, it may be a good idea to shoot for a split. If the team falls behind early tonight, it may give Spo an opportunity to see how some of the newer guys perform.
We have enough. No surrender.
Good stuff. I knew Lithuania had real killers out there
They got this. Dunc gonna shoot the lights out. If no Herro Heat will get more defensive and Sac on a second straight game day might ran out of gas