GAME PREVIEW: Heat seek revenge in Indiana tonight

GAME STORY

The Miami Heat (23-24) finally put an end to their six-game losing streak in New York, but now seek to avenge a pair of recent ugly home losses to the Pacers (21-24) when they visit Indiana tonight.

Unfortunately, former Pacers star Victor Oladipo will continue to miss action with an illness as Heat fans anxiously await his debut after being acquired at last week’s NBA trade deadline. Fellow newcomer Nemanja Bjelica went scoreless in his debut, playing five minutes off the bench against the Knicks. Kendrick Nunn has been upgraded to questionable for tonight’s game while dealing with a knee injury.

For Indiana (8-12 home record this season) they are coming off a 132-124 loss to the Washington Wizards on Monday night. Domantas Sabonis led his team with 35 points and 11 rebounds. Before that the Pacers had won four of their last five games, including a pair of road wins at the AmericanAirlines Arena last week.

Miami not only needs to raise their overall game, but they must figure out a way to contain offensively-gifted players like Sabonis while also making sure that the rest of the Pacers don’t go off either. In their last matchup, Sabonis played well with 17 points but he was just one of seven players to score in double-digits (out of the 10 that entered the game). In fact, seven Pacers players also finished with double-digit scoring in the first game of their double-header last week and Caris LaVert was the only Indiana starter in either game to score in single-digits with eight points that night. In contrast, Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo were the only Heat starters to score in double-digits in both games against Indiana.

Tonight marks the first live broadcast for the newly-named Bally Sports Sun which replaces Fox Sports Sun, although there doesn’t seem to be much change other than the name. According to their press release, “Bally Sports Florida and Bally Sports Sun will be widely available throughout the Sunshine State on cable, satellite and streaming providers, including AT&T U-verse, AT&T TV, DirecTV, Spectrum, Xfinity and more.”

ODDS: FiveThirtyEight gives the Heat a 45% chance to win the game.

HEAT VS PACERS: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31 AT 7:00 PM

INJURIES

MIAMI:

• Udonis Haslem: out (health and safety protocols)
• KZ Okpala: out (health and safety protocols)
• Victor Oladipo: out (illness)
• Gabe Vincent: probable (knee)
• Kendrick Nunn: questionable (ankle)

INDIANA:

• Doug McDermott: questionable (ankle)
• Jeremy Lamb: questionable (toe)
• TJ Warren: out for season (foot)

LINEUPS

BROADCAST INFO

TV: Bally Sports Sun
RADIO: The Ticket 790AM & The HEAT Radio Network (Mike Inglis, Ruth Riley Hunter)
SPANISH RADIO: WAQI 710AM & The HEAT Spanish Radio Network (José Pañeda, Joe Pujala)

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