Atlanta Hawks vs. Miami Heat Preview: Life Without DeMarre Carroll
UPDATE #2: Dwyane Wade has been ruled OUT for tonight’s game, according to a statement from the team.
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Update: Joe Goodman of the Miami Herald reports that Dwyane Wade could miss tonight’s game with a hamstring issue.
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As the Atlanta Hawks get ready to take on the Miami Heat in Philips Arena, they’ll be doing so without DeMarre Carroll at small forward. Carroll sat out of the last game against the Utah Jazz with a groin strain and has already been ruled out of the matchup with the new-look Heat.
In other injury news, rookie Adreian Payne should be available for this game, as should Mike Scott–who also missed the Jazz game.
Without LeBron James, the Hawks will have to figure out a way to slow down Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. Both players have seen their numbers jump (obviously), but they’re still trying to figure everything out and just suffered a pretty bad loss to the Indiana Pacers.
Meanwhile, the Hawks have won three games in a row and remain perfect at home while playing much better defense than last year. The loss of Carroll for this one could hurt in that area, but the Hawks do have more depth on the wing than they did last season.
It will be interesting to see how the Hawks fare at the 3-point line. The Heat have done an excellent job holding teams to poor shooting from outside (teams have shot just 29.2 percent from beyond the arc) and the Hawks very much rely on that shooting to win games. Still, Atlanta is one of the best teams at moving the ball around to create good looks, and the Heat might not be able to keep up with that kind of offense–even with Carroll out.
Be sure to follow us on Twitter (@ATLBeatBlog) for more Atlanta Hawks information leading up to the game and check back after the final buzzer for a full recap.
Date: November 14, 2014
Tip-Off Time: 7:30 p.m.
TV Channel: SportSouth, NBA League Pass ($)
Radio: 92.9 The Game (Local in Atlanta), Atlanta Hawks Radio Network Affiliates
Live Stream: League Pass Broadband