During Wednesday night’s late night West Coast matchup against the Golden State Warriors, the now 18-17 Miami Heat bounced back in dominant fashion. They secured a near 20-point victory over Steph Curry’s Warriors and got their first win since Jimmy Butler’s seven-game suspension.
Tonight, they will get back at it to build on that victory in a rematch against the Utah Jazz. Over this past weekend, the tanking Jazz squad handed Miami a humbling 36-point win to run them off their home floor. They have lost six of their last 10 games, and are still sitting at the 14th seed in the Eastern Conference.
But now the Heat learned the hard way that they cannot take any matchup in the NBA lightly. The Jazz aren’t afraid at breaking any hearts and locking in for an upset, especially if Miami is going to play their way into a disaster-class effort like they did last Saturday. Utah will try to get it done with injuries to a pair of key contributors in John Collins and Jordan Clarkson.
Collins dismantled Miami down low in their previous matchup, finishing with 24 points and 9 boards on nine of 16 shooting. They also have listed standout bench piece Brice Sensabough as out with an illness, who torched the Heat defense in that game as well with a team-high 34 points on 67% shooting.
After some rough shooting nights from Terry Rozier since his re-addition to the starting lineup, coach Erik Spoelstra has some decisions to make heading into tonight. Duncan Robinson has continued to shine off the bench, as Rozier has continued to be inefficient. Another starting lineup tweak could surely be on the way.
Miami is going to look to keep leaning on the increased roles from their young duo of Nikola Jovic and Jaime Jaquez Jr. They are 6-1 in when Jovic has played 30+ minutes, averaging 14.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.1 assists on 50% shooting, 43% from 3-point range in those games. His high usage bench role brings a much needed dynamic to the second unit.
Jaquez has also impressed, averaging 15.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 2.0 steals on 51.5% from the field as Butler’s starting lineup replacement in the last two games.
Injury Report (at the time of this publishing):
Miami Heat:
- Kevin Love (personal reasons) — DOUBTFUL
- Josh Richardson (heel) — DOUBTFUL
- Jimmy Butler (suspension) — OUT
- Dru Smith (achilles) — OUT
- Isaiah Stevens (G-League) — OUT
Utah Jazz:
- John Collins (hip) — OUT
- Jordan Clarkson (plantar) — OUT
- Keyonte George (heel) — OUT
- Brice Sensabough (illness) — OUT
- Elijah Harkless (G-League) — OUT
- Taylor Hendricks (fibula) — OUT
- Oscar Tshiebwe (G-League) — OUT
Projected Starting 5 (subject to change):
Miami Heat:
- Tyler Herro, G
- Duncan Robinson, G
- Jaime Jaquez Jr., F
- Haywood Highsmith, F
- Bam Adebayo, C
Utah Jazz:
- Collin Sexton, G
- Keyonte George, G
- Lauri Markkanen, F
- Johnny Juzang, F
- Walker Kessler, 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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At some point, Spo is going to need to play Bam and Ware together. With Love out, this might be the time, if Jovic can rotate thru as a C/PF.
Hopefully we get some payback!