Atlanta Hawks play rival Miami Heat Sunday evening

The Atlanta Hawks look to end their two-game losing streak when they face a familiar foe in their Southeast Division rival Miami Heat Sunday evening.

The Atlanta Hawks simply ran out of gas on Thursday night when they played the Indiana Pacers at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, 111-92. Atlanta is riding a two-game losing streak as the Hawks fell at home to the Los Angeles Clippers on a missed layup by All-Star power forward Paul Millsap, 85-83 Wednesday night.

Now that the Atlanta Hawks have had a few days to recover from dropping both of their games in a back-to-back, Atlanta will play its Southeast Division rival in the Miami Heat Sunday in at 6:00 PM ET tipoff at American Airlines Arena. Fox Sports Southeast will have the game.

Atlanta and Miami have already split their first two of four meetings this year, with the road team winning in each division rivalry game. The Atlanta Hawks bested the Miami Heat in South Beach, 98-92 on November 3rd. Miami retaliated against the Hawks in their next head-to-head meeting, defeating Atlanta, 100-88 on December 14th at Philips Arena.

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Entering play Sunday evening, the Atlanta Hawks are 27-21 and are in fourth place in the Eastern Conference, leading the Miami Heat by 0.5 games for first-place in the Southeast Division. Miami is in sixth place at 26-21.

With the standings so tightly packed, the winner of this game will end up taking control of the division and will likely occupy fourth place in the East entering the start of a new week in the NBA.

Both teams aren’t playing particularly great basketball at the moment, as the Atlanta Hawks and the Miami Heat are 4-6 in their last 10 games. Miami is riding a three-game winning streak to join the Boston Celtics as the Hawks’ primary challengers for the No. 4 seed in the East and thus home court advantage in the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs.

Atlanta needs a strong showing, as the Hawks have lost four of their last five games. The improved defensive tenacity has had Atlanta in about every game they’ve played in the last two weeks. However, failing to score late in games has proven costly for this team during that same stretch.

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Miami is notoriously bad on offense, but are one of the better defensive teams in the Association this year. Scoring again may not come easy for the Hawks, but should they match the Heat’s firepower defensively, then Atlanta can take a 2-1 series lead over Miami and end their current losing streak. Let’s Go Hawks!

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