Preview: Heat take on Wizards as the four game road trip comes to an end

The Miami Heat (35-37) face off against the Washington Wizards (30-43) tonight at the Capital One Arena and look to make it a very impressive 3-1 winning road trip. Should the Heat claim a victory over the Wizards then they will increase their hold of the eight seed in the Eastern Conference.

After picking up wins against the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs, the team unfortunately ran into a much to big of a monster last night in the Milwaukee Bucks and in particular MVP candidate Giannis Antetokounmpo. However in the second of a back to back tonight, the team face a much more easier task of taking on a Washington team who have very much underachieved this year.

The Wizards currently sit in the eleventh spot in the East and are 5.5 games back of the eighth seed Heat, so when you think back to last year when they were battling it out for a potential sixth spot with the Heat and the Bucks, it’s fair to say they are most likely looking forward to seeing this season out.

With a win in the nation’s capital tonight, the Heat can once again reduce the gap to the seventh seed Brooklyn Nets back to just 1.5 games. Brooklyn extended their hold to two games after last night’s victory against the Los Angeles Lakers saw them bring the curtain fully down on LeBron James’ hopes of playoff contention.

Maybe more important of all, with a victory tonight, Miami will push the gap between them and the Orlando Magic to two games, and with the two teams set to face off on Tuesday night a win here could be vitally important.

Tonight’s game will be the fourth and final meeting between the two teams, and Miami will be hoping to claim another win to add to the previous two they have already in the season series. Miami leads Washington 2-1, after they claimed a 113-112 win back in October in Washington and a 115-109 win at the AmericanAirlines Arena in January.

Probable Starters:

Heat: Josh Richardson, Dion Waiters, Derrick Jones Jr, Kelly Olynyk, Bam Adebayo

Washington: Tomas Satoransky, Bradley Beal, Troy Brown Jr, Bobby Portis, Thomas Bryant

Injury Report:

Heat: Justise Winslow (thigh) - Out, Rodney McGruder (knee) - Out

Washington: Trevor Ariza (Groin Strain) - Doubtful, John Wall (Heel) - Out For Season, Dwight Howard (Back) - Out Indefinitely

Broadcast Info:

Tip-Off: 7:00pm

TV: Fox Sports Sun (Eric Reid, John Crotty, Jason Jackson)

Radio: The Ticket 790AM & The HEAT Radio Network (Mike Inglis)

Spanish Radio: WAQI 710AM & The HEAT Spanish Radio Network (José Pañeda)