The NBA play-in tournament wraps up Friday with the two final playoffs seeds decided. In the East, the Miami Heat battle it out with the Chicago Bulls to determine which side gets the last postseason berth.
The Heat are the favorites for the contest and are also expected to make a fast start, with bookmaker Bovada having the odds at -150 for Miami to win the race to 10 points and at -165 for the home team to score 20 points first. The odds are at +115 and +125 for Chicago in the respective markets.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: April 13th, 7:30 P.M. (EST)
Having gone to at least the Conference Finals twice in three years, it would be a massive disappointment for Miami to not even make the playoffs in 2023 and avoiding an early finish to the season won’t be easy. Zach LaVine has just demonstrated just how good of a player he can be and the Bulls definitely have more potential than their 40-42 regular-season record shows.
With Chicago in massive trouble against Toronto in the first play-in game Wednesday, LaVine took over in the second half with 32 points and ended up leading all scorers with 39 points. Miami must do everything possible to keep LaVine from heating up, otherwise it’s going to be a very difficult battle for them.
The Heat are favored in the match-up but Chicago actually swept the regular-season series 3-0 between the two teams. The games weren’t very close either, with an eight-point gap from a season-opening 116-108 Chicago win the smallest.
LaVine averaged only 19.5 points against the Heat during the regular season, but he scored the ball very efficiently, while DeMar DeRozan led the offense. He notched 28.3 points per game with red-hot 64.7 percent shooting. Miami definitely needs to have a game plan ready against him as well.
Meanwhile, the Heat themselves will lean on Jimmy Butler. The six-time All-Star always tends to relish the big occasions and Friday’s contest is going to be a special affair against his former team.
Butler seems to take this match-up more seriously than the rest as he has averaged 24.5 points per game in his career against the Bulls, which is his highest mark against any opposition by a wide margin. Butler’s second-best output is 21.7 points against the Lakers.
Miami will need another outstanding display from Butler on Friday, along with improvement from the bench unit. Kyle Lowry scored a season-high 33 points off the pine Tuesday in the first play-in game against Atlanta but the rest of the crew managed to combine for just four points.
