The last 4 remaining teams without a win are the Brooklyn Nets, New Orleans Pelicans, Sacramento Kings and you’ve guessed it the Miami Heat. It’s been a smooth transition for Giannis from an individual standpoint, he’s delivering his standard 28.5 points, 9.5 rebs and 5 assists per game on 55% shooting, but the rest of his new teammates just haven’t followed suit. Bam Adebayo in particular has really struggled, more often than not he’ll find himself in the same exact spot where Giannis is and the two just haven’t been aligned in the first four games. Bam’s numbers are down across the board, especially his scoring which has gone down to 11.8 ppg, the 3rd lowest of his career. It wouldn’t be fair to Bam to say he’s the main problem, the Heat as a group just need to snap out of it and I think it’s only a matter of time they do so.
Atlanta was brought back down to Earth following their 2-0 start as they lost their next two to the Houston Rockets. Turns out this team is good, but just not on the level of the top teams in the West, at least for now. They’re aiming to win their first home game of the season here, containing Giannis is a priority and something they haven’t been able to do in the last 9 meetings (28.8 ppg, 11.8 rpg and 6.7 ast averages for the Greek Freak). Clogging the paint is one thing that has somewhat worked against Antetokounmpo, Atlanta enters Wednesday’s game ranking 10th in opponent points in the paint, allowing 48.5 per game. One thing that is a concern here is the lack of rebounding on the Hawks roster. They lost that battle in both games vs the Rockets, Houston grabbed 17 more rebounds in Monday’s game.
This game is all about Miami and them finally winning their first game of the season. They get only two more cracks at it before embarking on a 5-game West coast trip to start November. I’m hoping they can exploit the advantages they have size-wise here and dominate the Hawks on the interior. Giannis has never lost 5 games to start a season, I’m taking my chances with the Heat to win outright here.
Heat vs Hawks Predictions: Heat ML is available at +126 at time of publishing.
