The Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks will battle in an Eastern Conference preseason matchup on Thursday night. It's time to continue our NBA odds series and make a Heat-Hawks prediction and pick.
The Heat and Hawks will play Thursday night in what will be a divisional matchup between the projected top-two teams in the Southeast Division. Last season, the Hawks won the division, but the Heat have added star point guard Kyle Lowry and have their sights set on getting back to the top of the Eastern Conference.
Here's how the bookmakers have set the Heat-Hawks odds for this Thursday matchup.
NBA Odds: Heat-Hawks Odds
Miami Heat +12 (-105)
Atlanta Hawks -12 (-115)
Over 212 points (-110)
Under 212 points (-110)
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Why The Heat Can Cover The Spread
Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler, Dewayne Dedmon, Marcus Garrett, Tyler Herro, Kyle Lowry, Markieff Morris, Victor Oladipo, Duncan Robinson, P.J. Tucker and Omer Yurtseven are all ruled out for the Heat Thursday night. They are running out the skeleton squad during this spooky season, and while the Heat B-Squad will surely play hard, but the Hawks are slated to run out something close to a ‘dress rehearsal‘. If the Hawks stick to their guns and run out anything in resemblance to their regular rotation, the talent disparity will be quite significant. In this scenario, Miami's best chance to cover is keeping the margin within 20 or so until the Hawks have seen enough of their star players, then gritting out a cover vs. the Hawks second unit/respective training camp bodies.
Why The Hawks Can Cover The Spread
There are about 207 million reasons the Hawks can cover this spread tonight. With all of the Heat regulars out, the Hawks are doing the opposite, at least as of now, as they are on track to try to play all of their healthy players and treat the game as a final tune-up for the regular season. Trae Young, John Collins and company should have it easy tonight vs. whatever is left of the Heat on the floor tonight, but then again, who knows how long Hawks coach Nate McMillan will stick to his ‘dress rehearsal' plan with Miami seemingly punting on their final preseason tilt.
Final Heat-Hawks Prediction & Pick
With the information we have right now, the Hawks are the logical pick. Even if they only play their starters 20-25 minutes, their second unit guys are slated to play as well while Miami seemingly has their entire rotation on ice tonight. Roll with Atlanta to cover the 12 points, though you will want to follow up on injury reports and make sure the Hawks don't make some last minute decisions to rest guys given that it's still the preseason.
FINAL HEAT-HAWKS PREDICTION & PICK: Hawks -12 (-110)
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