The Miami Heat take on the Indiana Pacers in the final regular-season game for both teams in the NBA bubble in Orlando, Fla., Friday.
This will be a game between the fourth and fifth seeds in the Eastern Conference. Both of these teams are headed to the playoffs, and they will face each other in the opening round.
The fourth seed would usually be an advantage, grabbing home court for most of the series. But since the games are in the Orlando bubble, that doesn’t mean as much.
However, grabbing this win just before heading into the series would be a great confidence boost. They will also be focusing on getting healthy for when it matters most.
Heat Will Be Shorthanded
Miami will be entering the playoffs a little banged up. The injury report includes Jimmy Butler, Gabe Vincent, Jae Crowder, Andre Iguodala, and Derrick Jones Jr.
Butler already missed some of the games in the bubble for his injury. He will have to be healthy for the playoffs for the Heat to beat this Pacers team.
This is a bit of a meaningless game, so these players resting could be a precaution. There is no reason for any of them to get injured in this game.
It was also reported that Bam Adebayo will be out for this game. He is a key part of this team and leads them in rebounds.
Indiana Trying to Beat the Heat
Indiana hasn’t had much luck against Miami this year. They are 0-3 so far this season against them, including a 22-point loss just four days ago.
One of the highlights of the bubble has been the play of T.J. Warren. He has come out of nowhere to be one of the most talked-about players in the NBA. He has averaged 31 points per game since the restart, though he managed just 12 points — all in the first half — of the Monday loss.
He did rest in their latest game against the Rockets because of plantar fasciitis.
“He had a little soreness there,” Pacers coach Nate McMillan said. “We wanted to give him some rest on that. I will get the medical report on our guys, and Friday, we’ll make a decision on who is playing and how much they are playing.”
The Pacers have been missing one of their All-Stars in Domantas Sabonis since the restart due to injury. They will definitely miss him in the playoffs.
Prediction
The first-round series between these two teams will be about the matchup between Butler and Warren, who have had words for each other this season. Hopefully, both of these guys will be close to 100% for an interesting series.
The Heat are missing a lot in this game, and the Pacers could take advantage, even without Warren.
“It’s a chance to get healthy. We have to look at that,” McMillan said. “We also want to compete, so it’s not like we’re going to take this game off. There’s some guys that we may need to look at cutting their minutes or resting them due to some injuries and some fatigue. The guys that are out there, we want to work and compete.”
Not sure how I feel about the playoff matchup yet, but in this one, I’ll take the Pacers (-1).