GAME PREVIEW: Heat open White Hot Playoffs in the 305

Miami will try to take advantage of home court against the 1st seed Milwaukee Bucks.

Game Story:

The Miami Heat did what they needed to do in Milwaukee and stole a win on the road. Now they have home court advantage and head back to South Beach with the series knotted up at 1-1. The last game was a forgettable one, as the Bucks shot a franchise record amount of 3 pointers and poured it on. They won by double digits and even had the lead up to 30 points at one point in the game.

Heat fans have seen this display of shooting from this team before, as their previous franchise record of three’s came in the 2021 playoffs against Miami. The Heat went on to get swept in that first round series. Jimmy Butler and his squad need to do a better job at applying more pressure defensively. Mark Jackson’s famous line “hand down man down” is as accurate and as straight to the point as it seems.

They cannot allow this team to see open looks and get into a rhythm from behind the 3 point line. With that being said, Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis were both having their way inside the paint in game 2 as well. It will be interesting to see if coach Spoelstra sticks with Duncan Robinson in the starting unit or makes the adjustment to match the size of the Bucks.

Inserting Kevin Love in that first group could definitely help with that. He adds a big body that can hold his own on defense and bring down rebounds, not to mention giving Bam Adebayo some support so that if Adebayo winds up switching on a smaller player it won’t be an immediate mismatch.

Giannis Antetokounmpo’s status is unclear for tonight. He is listed as questionable but hasn’t been a full participant at the Buck’s practices just yet. He will be closer to a game time decision. However, his availability will have a strong affect on Miami’s defensive game plan.

With him in the line up, fans should expect to see the team run some zone defense to collapse onto Antetokounmpo when driving through the lane. If he doesn’t play, Miami would most likely start out with man to man match ups.

For Miami, it’s the same injury report as usual. No Tyler Herro, which was announced by the team yesterday he has underwent surgery on his hand and will be sidelined for a “minimum of 6 weeks”. Those 6 weeks would but around the same time the NBA Finals start.

Kyle Lowry is listed as questionable as he’s been every game for a while now, but he is expected to be available.

Tonight’s game is nationally televised on ESPN.

Injury Report:

MIAMI:

• Kyle Lowry (knee) — QUESTIONABLE

• Tyler Herro (hand) — OUT

• Nikola Jovic (back) — OUT

MILWAUKEE:

• Giannis Antetokounmpo (back) — QUESTIONABLE

• Wesley Matthews (calf) — OUT

Probable Starters (at time of publishing):

MIAMI

• Jimmy Butler

• Max Strus

• Bam Adebayo

• Duncan Robinson

• Gabe Vincent

MILWAUKEE

• Khris Middleton

• Bobby Portis

• Brook Lopez

• Grayson Allen

• Jrue Holiday

ODDS (via FanDuel)

Check the odds out at FanDuel!

Broadcast Info:

Tipoff: 7:30 PM EST

TV: ESPN & 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)

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