The Atlanta Hawks earned the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference by winning two games in the Play-In Tournament. Their reward for doing so is a series with the Miami Heat in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. In our NBA predictions for Sunday, we look at Hawks vs Heat, as both teams will attempt to start this series off on the right foot in Miami.
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Hawks vs Heat Game 1 Betting Pick
This game will be played at FTX Arena at 1:00 PM ET on Sunday, April 17, 2022.
Why Bet The Heat:
✅ The Heat have a big edge on the interior in this game now that Clint Capela is out injured for the Hawks. Capela suffered an injury during the final play-in game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, and could miss this entire series. That will make things much more difficult on the Hawks, to the benefit of Miami.
✅ Miami is one of the better defensive teams in the NBA this season, ranking fourth in defensive rating on the season. They will be able to use their superior defense to get in the way of the Hawks, while Atlanta’s bottom-five defensive rating will be a huge problem for them over the course of this game and this series.
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✅ Even though they beat the Cavaliers on the road to get the eighth seed, the Hawks are still a poor road team this season. They are well below .500 away from home on the season, and will struggle here in their second straight road game, as they play a much better team in this matchup against Miami.
Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks came back from a double-digit halftime deficit to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers on the road on Friday night. That victory for the Hawks earned them the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, setting up this series with the top seeded Heat. Now, the Hawks will look to pick up another big road win in a big game to get themselves off to a good start in this series.
Atlanta’s performance against Cleveland was entirely dictated by the performance of Trae Young, who struggled in the first half but came alive in the second half. Miami has an elite defense, and likely will not make things easy on Young in Game 1. But Young proved against Cleveland that he can stretch the floor with long threes that even the best defenses may not be able to handle.
Miami Heat
Miami earned the top seed in the Eastern Conference this season, and are one of the favorites to win the East during the playoffs. They will have home court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs, starting with this series against the Atlanta Hawks. For the Heat to take advantage of being at home on Sunday, they will need to limit the jump shooting of Atlanta.
With Clint Capela out, the Heat do not have to worry quite as much about rim runs and lobs as they would with Capela available. As a result, they should be able to key in more on Trae Young, Bogdan Bogdanovic, and Danilo Gallinari from the outside. Their ability to do that, combined with home court advantage against a Hawks team that is terrible at home, should be enough to propel them forward in Game 1.