Here’s the thing about the Miami Heat: For the most part, they lose to teams with winning records, and they beat teams with losing records. This much was true in Sunday night’s loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. Fortunately, the Heat have a chance to bounce back in a pair of games against the sub-.500 Atlanta Hawks starting on Monday night.
Here’s what to know for Monday night’s tilt.
How to watch Heat at Hawks
Time: 7:30 pm ET
Location: State Farm Arena, Atlanta
TV: FanDuel Sports Network
Stream: NBA League Pass, Fubo
Key injuries
The Heat will be without Nikola Jovic, who fractured his right hand in the first half of Sunday night’s loss in Milwaukee. Kevin Love is still out for personal reasons.
Tyler Herro (right shoulder soreness) and Kel’el Ware (left ankle discomfort) are considered probable.
Keshad Johnson, Isaiah Stevens and Josh Christopher are away from the team on G League assignment.
For the Hawks, they’ll be without Jalen Johnson (shoulder surgery), Larry Nance Jr., Kobe Bufkin and Vit Krejci. Trae Young (right Achilles) is probable.
Key matchup
Everything starts with Trae Young, who has scored 38 points in each of his last three games. But the Hawks have lost those three games in large part because their defense struggled to get stops, giving up more than 140 points in two of those games (including one in overtime).
If the Heat allow Young to do his thing but shut off the water on his teammates, they should be able to score enough to get a much-needed win.
Keep an eye on Dyson Daniels, a top-notch wing defender who will hound Tyler Herro for most of this game. Because of that, the Heat will likely turn to Bam Adebayo to go off against Atlanta’s underwhelming center rotation.
Betting
The Heat are 1.5-point favorites in Atlanta.