The Miami Heat will be looking for their first win of the season Monday night when they return home to take on the Dallas Mavericks. Miami has lost all three games to start the season this year. They are coming off a 115-110 loss on the road against the Hornets. Giannis Antetokounmpo played limited minutes, only scoring 14 points in 25 minutes. Even with Giannis limited, it was the first time the Heat finished a game not trailing by double digits. The Mavericks are also coming off a loss in this game. They were defeated by the Spurs 122-126 Saturday night. Rookie first round pick, Sergio de Larrea led the team in scoring with 21 points with Cooper Flagg out with an injury. Flagg will continue to miss time tonight along with Naji Marshall.
The Heat have struggled to put together the pieces early on. Antetokounmpo is averaging 28.3 points per game, but the players around him are making this team look like last year’s Bucks. Again, even after the trade, Giannis finds himself in a situation where he is looking for help from his team. Bam Adebayo, specifically needs to step up in this game. After breaking Kobe Bryant’s single game scoring record last season, Adebayo is only averaging 13 points per game. Behind Adebayo, no players on the Heat are averaging more than 11 points besides Davion Mitchell (17 points per game). With the Heat returning to their home court, and with Flagg out of the lineup, this is a good bounce back spot for them to pick up their first win, but the offense has been so out of sync that I can’t back them to win this game easily. Kyrie Irving will be available to play tonight to lift the Mavericks. The Mavericks also hold a solid front court of P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford. These tough bigs should be able to continue to keep Adebayo in check and provide some resistance against Antetokounmpo.
Mavericks +8.5 is available at the time of publishing. Playable at +8.
