As the Miami Heat take on the Atlanta Hawks in a do-or-die game with the winner going to the playoffs and the loser going home, veteran Kevin Love will not be available for the contest on Friday night. With people locking in their predictions for the Heat's game against the Hawks in the play-in tournament, Love will be absent as the reason has been revealed.

ClutchPoints confirmed with the team that Love has left to attend to personal family matters so he will miss Friday against Atlanta.

This wouldn't be the first time the veteran has missed games due to what has been listed as “personal reasons” with the five-time All-Star appearing in 23 games this season. He's averaging 5.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.0 assists while shooting 35.7 percent from the field, 35.8 percent from three-point range.

The last time Love played for Miami was on March 21 against the Houston Rockets when he only played six minutes. It was the first time he appeared in a game since March 7 against the Minnesota Timberwolves. On the season, he's averaged 10.9 minutes per game so playing time has been sparse.

Heat will be without Kevin Love for the crucial play-in game vs. the Hawks

Miami Heat forward Kevin Love (42) looks on during warm-ups before the game against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Kaseya Center.
Jim Rassol-Imagn Images

As the Heat look to make play-in tournament history, Love was originally listed as “questionable” coming into Friday's outing due to “Return to Competition Reconditioning.”

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Still, the team has dealt with absences besides Love before homing in on the mindset that the team is “halfway” to the playoffs, as a key aspect will be bringing the defensive intensity to the Hawks, as said by head coach Erik Spoelstra.

“We’re only halfway there,” Spoelstra said. “We didn’t have the luxury of having the one game and then you’re automatically in.”

“The most important thing about today is that we imposed a will defensively and competitively,” Spoelstra said after Wednesday’s victory in Chicago. “On the glass, loose balls, things of that nature. Those will remain true. As we get to Atlanta, there will be some different specifics to their team, and we’ll just have to get to it.”

At any rate, Miami will be led by Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo in hopefully achieving play-in tournament history in being the first 10th seed to make it through and punch their ticket to the playoffs. If so, they would face the No. 1 seed Cleveland Cavaliers, but they will have to get through Atlanta first on Friday night.