Atlanta Hawks at Miami Heat preview: Hello, South Beach
UPDATE: The Hawks will have the services of Al Horford for Tuesday’s game, as the team announced that he will start.
The Atlanta Hawks head on the road for the second time this preseason to take on the 0-3 Miami Heat in South Beach. The Hawks have performed well so far during the preseason, and head into this one with a 1-1 record after falling to the Memphis Grizzlies 93-88 Saturday.
That game featured playing time for Kyle Korver and DeMarre Carroll for the first time this preseason and… they probably didn’t play as well as they would have liked. The two starters combined to shoot just 2-11 from the field and score seven points in 34 total minutes on the court. It wasn’t exactly eye-opening in the manner that Hawks fans want to see, but hey it’s preseason for a reason right? Right.
One thing to watch out for in this matchup with the LeBron-less Heat is what shooting guard John Jenkins is going to be up to. Against the Grizzlies, Jenkins led the Hawks with 15 points on 5-6 shooting (2-3 from the 3-point line and 3-4 from the charity stripe) and so far in two games this preseason he’s got a 77% field goal percentage — that’s solid.
Another thing to watch out for will be appearances from players who still have yet to play and are recovering from various injuries. Most notably, we’ll be looking for Al Horford (who will reportedly return to action at some point this week), but sightings of Pero Antic and Kent Bazemore would be nice as well.
The last thing to watch out for in this one isn’t related to the Hawks at all. The Heat are obviously a different team this season and it will the first sighting of the squad without King James for many Hawks fans — yours truly included. They still have a solid roster and stars to rely on, but how much did LeBron actually put on his shoulders? A preseason game might be a terrible place to try and decipher this, but at least we’ll have a decent look at what Miami will be working with this season.
Be sure to follow us on Twitter (@ATLBeatBlog) for more Atanta Hawks information leading up to the game and check back after for a full recap.
Date: October 14, 2014
Tip-Off Time: 7:30 p.m.
TV Channel: No local TV in Atlanta, NBA League Pass
Radio: 92.9 The Game (Local in Atlanta), Atlanta Hawks Radio Network Affiliates
Live Stream: League Pass Broadband