NBA Matchups: April 18

MIA @ ATL | DAL @ MEM

Miami Heat at Atlanta Hawks

Team Totals: Heat 109.8, Hawks 110.8

Injury Report: Trae Young (P, Achilles), Nikola Jovic (Q, hand), Pelle Larsson (Q, ankle)

Heat projected starters: Tyler Herro, Alec Burks, Andrew Wiggins, Bam Adebayo, Kel’El Ware

Hawks projected starters: Trae Young, Dyson Daniels, Zaccharie Risacher, Mo Gueye, Onyeka Okongwu

Offensive Ranks: Heat 21st, Hawks 14th
Defensive Ranks: Heat 9th, Hawks 19th

Season Series: 2-2

Noteworthy Missed Games: Dyson Daniels (1 missed), Jalen Johnson (3), Onyeka Okongwu (1), Caris LeVert (1, traded), Andrew Wiggins (1, traded), Davion Mitchell (1, traded)

Spo quotes: Said it’s “none of your business” on what he said to the team, said it’s been a lot of work to play so well against the Bulls, said Davion was so inspiring on both ends, said Kyle Anderson made such an impact without scoring and he “loves lineups like that”, said Herro was there “at every level” on offense and Herro even played well on defense.

Snyder quotes: Said they executed well in the third quarter on defense and they rebounded OK, said they have to get more 3-pointers up, said they have another Game 7 against the Heat now, said Gueye was able to stay in front and the team shifted well to slow down Paolo, said Trae apologized to the team for not keeping his cool.

Stats and Notes:

*These teams know each other really well and the Heat have generally matched up well with the Hawks over the years. Miami has been able to keep the Hawks in transition and Spo always has answers for Trae. These teams have three games with basically this group of guys and the Heat won that 2-1 with two double-digit wins (both in Miami). Miami has been able to limit teams at the rim lately and they haven’t played too much zone against Trae over the years. Miami’s defense has generally been on track and they’ve been around average or better in their last seven games, including a superb 88.3 D rating against the Bulls on Wednesday. For the Hawks, it’s really been a problem to limit teams inside, but overall their defense had been performing OK lately. However, it was schedule aided and they were playing some of their worst defense heading into the games where the opponents had nothing to play for (or were tanking). Miami should be able to put some points on the board here.