Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks meet for their play-in tournament, aims to get an opportunity if earning a trip to the Celtics. These two teams clinched a play-in berth after they finished at the seventh and eighth in the East. The Heat earned a spot in the play-in, after finishing the regular season at the seventh of the Eastern Conference. During the regular season, the Heat had 44 wins from their 82 matches. The Hawks on the other hand is at the eighth, finishing the regular season with 41 wins and 41 losses. This meeting will be on April 12, 2023, at 7:30 AM (GMT+8), with the Heat as hosts.
During the regular season, these two teams already had four meeting in the regular season this season. From those meetings, it was the Heat who has the advantage, winning three of those four matches. The winners of this meeting will face the Celtics in the playoffs, who is at the second spot in the East. The loser in this match will meet with the winners of the play-in match between the Bulls and the Raptors. Although the losers will still have a chance here, it is better to win this match as winners are already secured for a spot in the playoffs.
Miami Heat
The Heat’s performance this season is far from how they performed last season, where they were able to finish at the top of the East. During the 2021-22 season, they finished at the top of the East with 52 wins. Now they are playing in the play-in, where their spot in the playoffs remains to be unsure. They are still fortunate though that they ended their regular season with four wins from their last five games. That record secured the seventh spot for them, a record they are still fortunate to achieve. According to their coach, that record is the reality they need to embrace, and shift their focus to. Moreover, they are getting confidence from the fact that they won three of their four meetings against the Hawks. They are the 30th in offense, with just 109.5 points per game, but are second in defense allowing 109.8 points per game.
Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo continues to lead the Heat, chipping in 22.9 and 20.4 points per game. However, they have some notable names who might be unavailable in this match. Kyle Lowry and Max Strus are both questionable in this match due to their injuries. Nikola Jovic on the other hand remains to be unavailable for them.
Atlanta Hawks
The path of the Hawks going into this play-in tournament is not easy, which is why they see this match as a fresh start for them. Due to the ins and outs of some members of their teams, they failed to be as impressive as they can. Moreover, they have been battling with inconsistency as well almost the entire season. In fact, they finished their season with five wins and five losses from their last 10 matches. Their loss includes a loss against the Celtics for their season- ender. Putting aside their issues in the regular season, their focus is now in this match, where they believed they need to focus immediately. Offensively, the Hawks sit at the third with 118.4 points per game, but are 26th defensively, allowing 118.1 points per game.
Trae Young, and Dejounte Murray, who leads the Hawks with 26.2 and 20.5 points per game respectively needs to step-up here. During their previous matches against the Heat, these two were held by the Heat, stopping them to explode. Fortunately, they have no injury concern in this match, and can go all-out here.
Prediction:
Miami Heat
Total Under: 115.5
Odds: 0.93
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