Game time is almost here for the Atlanta Hawks and the Miami Heat.
In the regular season finale, the Hawks and the Heat face each other and there are playoff implications for botht teams. Atlanta clinched a top six seed with their win on Friday vs Cleveland and if they beat Miami (or with ther results), they can lock up the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference. Miami is hoping to jump up to No. 9 and host Charlotte in the 9/10 play-in tournament matchup, but they will have to hope that the Hornets lose to the Knicks.
After Atlanta ruled out their usual starting lineup plus Jonathan Kuminga and Gabe Vincent, their starting lineup was a bit of a question, but both lineups were just announced.
Hawks
G- Keaton Wallace
G- Zaccharie Risacher
F- Corey Kispert
F- Asa Newell
C- Tony Bradley
Heat
G- Davion Mitchell
G- Tyler Herro
F- Andrew Wiggins
F- Bam Adebayo
C- Kel’el Ware
The Hawks will also have Christian Kolko, RayJ Dennis, Mo Gueye and Buddy Hield for tonight’s game.
This is going to be a great chance for the Hawks younger players to get some real action. Zaccharie Risacher was taken out of the starting lineup back in February and his role in the playoffs for the Hawks is not completely certain, but this is a chance to show that he can be a factor for the Hawks when it really counts next week.
Wallace is no stranger to Hawks games and while he has not been a regular part of the rotation for much of the season, he has stepped up in spots like this for the Hawks before and it would not be surprising at all if he were to have a nice game tonight as the lead ball handler.
One player that I am going to have a close eye on tonight is RayJ Dennis. Dennis is on a two-way contract with the Hawks, but he has shown in the G-League this season that he has talent.
The 6’1 guard appeared in 38 games (36 starts) across the Tip-Off Tournament and Regular Season with the San Diego Clippers (five games), Noblesville Boom (two games) and College Park Skyhawks (31 games), averaging 23.6 points, 9.4 assists and 4.6 rebounds in 35.6 minutes (.445 FG%, .361 3FG%, .746 FT%).
Signed to a two-way contract with the Hawks on Dec. 31, Dennis finished with one of the best statistical individual seasons in College Park history, notching the highest scoring regular season in franchise history (24.2).
