Game Time: 7:30 PM ET, Tuesday, April 19th, 2022 

Venue:   FTX Arena, Miami, Florida

Where to Watch: TNT 

DraftKings:  Spread: Heat -7.5; O/U 217

Fanduel:  Spread:  Heat -7.5; O/U 217.5

BetMGM:  Spread: Heat -7.5; O/U 217.5

Hawks: 43-39, 8th place Eastern Conference

Heat: 53-29, 1st place Eastern Conference

A lopsided NBA Eastern Conference Round 1, Game 2 Playoff matchup between the 8th Seed and the First Seed.  The series opened as expected with the #1 Miami Heat blowing the #8 Atlanta Hawks out of the water 115-91.  It was a win for the Heat and a win for the Hawks. The Hawks were missing the starting Center Clint Capela and the starting PF John Collins had just laced em’ up after getting back from another long injury absence.  That is a losing formula against C Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat… except Bam had a ridiculously quiet game. In fact the Hawks PF John Collins played better in less minutes.  So what was it?... Oh… the Heat are a better team.  The Heat have a much better defense.  Both teams have great shooters, especially from distance, but the Heat shooters are better overall.  Heat reserve G/F Duncan Robinson had 27 points in 22 minutes!  On 8 of 9 3-pointers! Duncan’s scoring and some defense is all the Heat needed.  The Hawks had no answer.  The Hawks' absolute best player, PG extraordinaire Trae Young had only 8 points in 28 minutes.  The sad part is Trae was 0-7 from the 3 point range and 1-12 from the floor as a whole.  Every time Trae had the ball a Heat defender was on him… under him, around him.  Trae will play better in Game 2… but so will Bam Adebayo.

The Atlanta Hawks dropped Game 1 to the Miami Heat. A very odd thing happened in this game that illustrates how much the Hawks bungled the NBA trade deadline this year.  They should have traded PF John Collins… why?... Because he is valuable… and he has missed several stretches of games over the last 3 seasons… and the hawks had PF Danilo Gallinari playing better off the bench… and now playing better as a starter.  The Hawks failed to find a deal.  The one deal the Hawks did make this year (of note) was trading SF Cam Reddish to the Knicks and receiving SF Kevin Knox and pieces and a pick.  They didn’t play Kevion Knox much… They, like the Knicks, don’t seem to like Kevin Knox much… and in Game 1 in garbage time SF Kevin Knox put in 4 minutes of work for 10 pts and 2 rebounds… making Kevin Knox the BEST performing Atlanta Hawk in Game 1.  The Hawks played it safe at the trade deadline and now will most likely be swept out of the Playoffs.

The Miami Heat coasted to an easy win over the Atlanta Hawks in Game 1.  They got an easy win ATS.  They were able to rest their starters early.  They played fantastic defense all game long.  The final score of 115-91 implies a closer game than it actually was.  SF Jimmy Butler put in 21 pts, 6rbs, and 4 asts.. But what you do not see in the stats is his relentless defense.  He shut down entire zones of the floor… forcing Atlanta to go to the other side where they were met by more guys willing to play defense.  Butler was +27 in +/- category.  It is rare to not get a win with your leader pulling down a +/- stats like that.  If you were to see that ever happen I can Guarantee you the player with that stats went down with injury at the end of the first half and the game was flipped.  The Heat should be heavily favored in Game 2… but the spread has only landed at Heat -7.5.  The reason is of course Vegas expects Trae Young to get more than 8 points in Game 2… but the flip side of that coin is we also expect Bam Adebayo to get more than 6 points in Game 2.  It seems an easy bet ini the Heat… let’s look at the numbers.

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The Hawks are 45-40 on the season, but 37-46 ATS.  They have logged 43 Overs and 40 Unders.  They are 17-26 on the road.

The Heat are 54-29 on the season, but 47-35-1 ATS.  They have notched 49-34 ATS.   They are a dominant 30-12 in home games.

The Hawks are 6th in scoring, 20th in rebounds with 44.0 per game, and 4th in AST/TO ratio with 2.1.  On defense they rank a lowly 21st while allowing 112.4 ppg and it shows.

The Heat are 17th in scoring with 110.0 ppg, 22nd in rebounds with 43.7 per game, and 19th in AST/TO ratio with 1.8.  On defense they rank 4th while holding opponents to 105.6 ppg and it shows.

Our prediction for Tuesday, April 19th is….. Heat 118 - Hawks 101

Another big win for the Heat. The numbers say that Trae Young can have a big game going forward, but the Heat can withstand it and shut down someone else.  It’s a silly idea to bet against the #1 Seed until the #8 Seed puts up a worthy game.

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Miami is 63-41 ATS versus Atlanta since 1996.
Miami is 35-18 ATS versus Atlanta at Miami since 1996.
5 of 7 of these games have gone Under the last 3 seasons.

Hawks: C Clint Capela (knee) Out ** SG Lou Williams (back) Out

Heat: No injuries to report

Hawks: PF Danilo Gallinari, SF Deandre Hunter, C Onyeka Okongwu, SG Kevin Huerter, PG Trae Young

Heat: PF PJ Tucker,. SF Jimmy Butler, C Bam Adebayo, PG Kyle Lowry, SG Max Strus

Hawks: Nate McMillan

Heat: Erik Spoelstra