The Miami Heat will begin a six-game road trip Wednesday–their most pivotal stretch to date, and arguably their most pivotal stretch of the season–beginning with the Phoenix Suns inside Footprint Center with tip-off slated for 9 p.m. EST.
The Suns are off to a roaring 6-1 start behind Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal and newly-acquired point guard Tyus Jones, who signed a minimum contract with the team this offseason. The Suns’ shot profile has changed offensively to shoot more 3-pointers while there’s more sound structure defensively.
Phoenix currently owns the 16th-best offense, 6th-best defense and 8th-best NET Rating; the Heat, sitting at a median 3-3, are No. 17 in offense, No. 12 in defense and No. 13 in NET Rating. Phoenix is also one of five teams with one loss or fewer, as are the Cleveland Cavaliers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors.
Miami is coming off their third home loss of the season–a 111-110 loss to the Sacramento Kings after Domantas Sabonis drained an off-balance, game-winning putback with 0.7 seconds left. It has dropped all three of its home contests this season–all to potential playoff foes–while having gone 3-0 on the road against the East’s bottom-feeders in Charlotte, Detroit and Washington.
A big reason for its struggles has been its poor third quarters, which I wrote about yesterday (check it out here). It’s been the league’s worst third-quarter team through six games, posting a ghastly minus-35.5 NET Rating in those frames; Miami’s lost the frame by 20 points already twice this season after doing it twice in three separate seasons since the turn of the century.
Will the Heat be able to bounce back against a scorching-hot Suns squad in The Valley? Let’s see!
Injury Report (at the time of this publishing):
Miami Heat:
- Jaime Jaquez Jr. (illness) — OUT
- Kevin Love (return to conditioning) — OUT
Phoenix Suns:
- Bradley Beal (elbow) — PROBABLE
Projected Starting 5 (subject to change):
Miami Heat:
- Terry Rozier, G
- Tyler Herro, G
- Jimmy Butler, F
- Nikola Jovic, F
- Bam Adebayo, C
Phoenix Suns:
- Tyus Jones, G
- Devin Booker, G
- Bradley Beal, G
- Kevin Durant, F
- Jusuf Nurkic, C
Broadcast Info:
- Tipoff: 9:00 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)
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The big 4 of bam,butler,herro, and rozier better bring all they’ve got to this matchup… if they hope to win.
Phoenix has had a good start, but in my opinion we are more likely to beat them than the Nuggets or Wolves. Let’s do it!
I hope for the best.