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The Jazz (11-12) are continuing their east coast road trip tonight against the Miami Heat (8-13), having gone (2-0) against the Nets and Hornets so far. Miami has looked like a middling Eastern conference team for the first 10 games of the season, going (5-5), but injury issues and inconsistent play has dropped them to mid-lottery / purgatory status. They’re coming off of a surprising win against the Pelicans and Anthony Davis, with six of the nine players in the rotation in double digits, lead by Josh Richardson’s 20 points and Bam Adebayo’s 8p/11r off of the bench.
The Jazz won a great game against the Hornets on fantastic outside shooting (18/40, or 45%), with the re-addition of Kyle Korver pouring in 4 threes on 6 attempts. The Jazz offense looked much more alive in spite of Joe Ingles’ foul trouble. Derrick Favors unfortunately only logged 19 minutes, and poor Dante Exum got his first DNP-CD of the season in an offense-focused game. With that in mind, it is very interesting see Quin’s minutes distribution in the game:
Only the first game with Korver, so the sample size is small, but I took a look at the rotations last night in Charlotte. Mostly about what you'd expect, with Korver taking the AB minutes plus a few. After I finished, I was more intrigued by Charlotte's 14-2 early 2nd Q run. pic.twitter.com/vo4UKHlBTG
— Ken Clayton (@k_clayt) December 1, 2018
We’ll see how the Heat’s guard line up affects these rotations tonight (more on that below).
Game Info
When: 4:00 PM MT • Sunday, December 2, 2018
Where: AmericanAirlines Arena • Miami, FL
TV: AT&T SportsNet-Rocky Mountain, Fox Sports Sun
Radio: 1280AM/97.5 FM The Zone, 790 The Ticket / S: WAQI 710 AM
Injuries:
None!
Miami Heat:
Goran Dragic — Knee — OUT
Tyler Johnson — Right Hamstring — OUT
Dion Waiters — Ankle — OUT
Derrick Jones Jr. — Hamstring — OUT
What to watch for
The Miami Guard Rotation
Heat listing Goran Dragic, Tyler Johnson, Derrick Jones Jr. and Dion Waiters as out Sunday vs. Jazz. Also, Duncan Robinson and Yante Maten still listed in G League. So Heat again down to 10 available players, with Dwyane Wade as lone available reserve guard.
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) December 1, 2018
Miami is undergoing some major injury issues at the guard positions, with their entire regular point guard rotation out. Look for a glut of converted shooting guards to take the floor, with Wayne Ellington to start at Point Guard, Rodney McGruder at Shooting Guard, and Josh Richardson at Small Forward. With Dwyane Wade the only reserve guard, Richardson will undoubtedly spend significant time at the two, but the Jazz will need to exploit the shallowness of the bench and run them out of the building.
Hassan Whiteside
Remember the season where Hassan Whiteside lead the NBA in blocks and Rudy vs Hassan was an (illegitimate) argument that people had? Whiteside has played in 20 of Miami’s 21 games, but is only averaging 26.6 minutes. Sometimes he looks like a monster, going off for 29 points and 20 rebounds against the Spurs on November 7th, and 21 points and 23 rebounds against the Nets on November 20th. But he’s also had duds of games (2p/5r/1b against the Raptors, 6p/7r/3b against the Lakers). Which Hassan Whiteside will we see tonight?