Miami Heat look to clinch playoff spot against Atlanta Hawks

The Miami Heat will conclude a four-game home stand when they take on the Atlanta Hawks at AmericanAirlines Arena on Tuesday night.

The Miami Heat (41-36) are coming off of a disappointing 110-109 Saturday night overtime loss to the Brooklyn Nets, and are now desperately trying to punch their ticket to the NBA playoffs.

In the loss to Brooklyn, the Heat had several opportunities to win the game and clinch a playoff berth; but unfortunately for the Heat, they just couldn’t get the job done, with both of their late rallies in the fourth quarter and in overtime falling short. Goran Dragic and James Johnson both finished with 18 points and Kelly Olynyk and Hassan Whiteside had 16 and 14 points, respectively.

For the Atlanta Hawks (22-55), they’re coming off of a 94-88 win over the Orlando Magic. Tyler Dorsey led them in scoring with 19 points, and Dewayne Dedmon added 17 points and 10 rebounds.

This will be the third game of the four-game season series between the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks. The Heat won the first meeting at AmericanAirlines Arena, 104-93 in October, but then fell to the Hawks 110-104 at Phillips Arena in December. The fourth and final game is on Wednesday in Atlanta, and will be the Heat’s last back-to-back of the season.

The Hawks will be without Dennis Schroder (ankle), Kent Bazemore (knee), Malcolm Delaney (ankle), Antonius Cleveland (ankle), and Jaylen Morris (ankle). As for the Heat, they’ll still be without Dion Waiters (ankle).

Just five regular-season games remain for the Miami Heat, as the playoffs are right around the corner. And while the loss to the lowly Brooklyn Nets was definitely a bit of a setback, the Heat have a really good chance to bounce back from that loss, with a couple of games against a tanking Atlanta Hawks team on both Tuesday and Wednesday. They will then take on the New York Knicks on Friday, as well.

However, the one thing the Heat can not do at this point in the season is play down to their competition; it has simply cost them too many games this season. They need to take care of business this week, starting Tuesday night, and get ready for war with the NBA playoffs tipping off   in a blink of an eye.

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Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 PM ET.