Two teams that are very familiar with one another– the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks– meet Tuesday in an NBA Eastern Conference play-in game in South Beach. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. ET at Kaseya Center. Miami is favored by -4.5 (-107) at BetOnline with a moneyline price of -215. The total stands at 227. Atlanta is +4.5 (-110) and +185.
The Heat has won seven straight at home against the Hawks and took three of the four regular season meetings.
Playoff opponents again this year
These two teams met last year in the first round of the playoffs with top seeded Miami winning four games to one. Jimmy Butler dominated the series scoring 33 points in Game 1, 45 in Game 2, 41 in Game 3, and 36 in Game 4. Normally you would say that as long as the Hawks have a player like Trae Young, they have a shot. That hasn’t been the case for the former Oklahoma star who hasn’t played well against the Heat.
📊 Trae Young over his last 9 games vs the Heat:
(Regular season and playoffs)
43 of 128 overall (33.6%)
12 of 62 from three (19.4%)#Heat #Hawks #NBAitalia pic.twitter.com/PyKxeT6sFR
— NBA News 24 (@nbaitalianews24) April 8, 2023
Miami Heat (44-38)
Miami didn’t seek to upgrade the roster after finishing the regular season as the No. 1 seed. But Butler, Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro all averaged over 20 points per game this year – Herro as a starter – with Max Strus, Victor Oladipo, Caleb Martin and Gabe Vincent all chipping in over or near 10 points per game off the bench. For Miami to advance, Butler has to continue to come up big against the Hawks, as he has done throughout his career:
Jimmy Butler 36 points Highlights vs Atlanta Hawks! #nbaplayoffs2022 game 4. pic.twitter.com/PVYH8om0NO
— NBA BASKETBALL (@DejoseMark) April 25, 2022
Atlanta Hawks (41-41)
Atlanta is one of the most explosive offenses in basketball, and for the first time in his career, Trae Young (26 ppg., 10.2 assists) and is putting up double-digit assists per game. As a team, Atlanta ranks ninth in shooting percentage (48.3%), and first in made field goals per game (44.6). However on defense, the Hawks struggle. They’re allowing 118.1 points per game which puts them in the bottom five of the league. For as much size as Atlanta has, they only rank 18th in rebounds per game (51.2), allow 26.0 assists per game, and allow 10.6 offensive rebounds per game (17th in the NBA).
The Boston Celtics await the winner of the play-in game. If the Heat advance, they won’t be a walkover for the No. 2-seeded Boston Celtics as the season series ended 2-2. On the other hand, Boston swept Atlanta 3-0.
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