If the Heat and Pelicans were fully healthy entering Friday’s play-in games, they’d likely be considered solid home favorites. Instead, both teams will be without their leading scorers, with Jimmy Butler sidelined for Miami due to an MCL sprain and Zion Williamson on the shelf for New Orleans as a result of a hamstring strain.
The injuries to Butler and Williamson don’t necessarily mean that the Heat and Pelicans won’t win and advance on Friday, but they’ve created a sense that anything could happen in either one of the remaining play-in games.
The Heat are still considered two-point favorites over the Bulls, per BetOnline.ag, which makes sense — Miami got used to playing without Butler this season, going 13-9 in games he missed, and Chicago has plenty of injury issues of its own. Zach LaVine and Patrick Williams are among a handful of Bulls players who are out for the season, while Alex Caruso‘s availability is up in the air due to an ankle injury.
Of course, Butler isn’t the only notable Heat player who will miss Friday’s game. Josh Richardson is out for the season following shoulder surgery and Terry Rozier continues to be affected by a neck injury.
The Heat/Bulls outcome will come down to which team’s healthy players step up in a win-or-go-home situation. Chicago’s starters did just that on Wednesday, with Coby White scoring a career-high 42 points while DeMar DeRozan, Nikola Vucevic, and Ayo Dosunmu combined for another 65. If Caruso can’t go, the Bulls will have to lean more heavily on reserves ike Jevon Carter, Torrey Craig, and Javonte Green for defensive purposes to complement those offensive weapons.
The Heat, meanwhile, will be looking for more from Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro. Adebayo had just 10 points in Wednesday’s loss to Philadelphia, and while Herro had 25 points and nine assists, he also missed 18 shots from the floor and turned the ball over five times.
In New Orleans, Williamson is the only player on the injury report, but he’s not the team’s only injury-related concern. Brandon Ingram has been back in action for just two games following a multi-week absence due to a knee injury and hasn’t looked 100% since returning — he didn’t play the final 7:38 of Tuesday’s loss to the Lakers.
The Pelicans have a deep roster featuring a plethora of talented two-way contributors, and they went 5-0 vs. the Kings this season, including a win last Thursday. But if Williamson is out and Ingram is hampered, it could be an uphill battle for New Orleans against a feisty Sacramento team that is currently a 1.5-point favorite, according to BetOnline.ag.
While Domantas Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox are the stars and both played well on Tuesday vs. Golden State, the Kings are extra dangerous when they’re getting major contributions from players like Keegan Murray, Harrison Barnes, and Keon Ellis, who combined to score 64 points against the Warriors. Ellis was especially active on defense, racking up three blocks and three steals — Sacramento was +27 during his 39 minutes.
We want to know what you think. Will the Heat and Pelicans hang on at home and give their injured stars a chance to try to make it back before the end of round one? Or will we see a pair of road teams pull off victories on Friday and claim the No. 8 seeds in their respective conferences?
Vote below in our poll, then head to the comment section to share your predictions for Friday’s games!
Path for the Celtics looking easy AF if Jimmy is hurt and/or they play the Bulls and then the winner of Cavs/Magic.
Knicks have the hardest road of a 1/2 seed IMO because it’s two tough outs. Sixers then assuming the Bucks. OKC and Denver will cruise in the 1st round.
Shams reported this AM that Giannis will miss the first round. I think the Pacers win that series.
I guess thats the benefit of being the 1 seed?
The East has been weaker than the West for some time now…
This is just further evidence that more owners in the east just don’t care about winning…
Scarlett you make the strangest statements.
Pulling for our NorCal Brothers pull it out tonight. I think their great determination and almost desperation to make this happen will work in their favor.
New Orleans has a future and there’s always next year Etc, but they’re a little banged up and they know they’re not at their best so there would be legitimate excuses why they didn’t move on.
Whereas Sacramento ran it back with the same Squad in the hopes these guys can get it done. They almost need to make these playoffs. If they don’t then what? How do they improve? Add a guy here and there?
I think they can and they’ll work hard enough to do it.
The Pels have been “running it back” with this same squad for a while… Third year of Alverado/Murphy/Jones/Valanciunas/CJ/Nance…. 5th year for Zion/BI…
They have not been running it back. How often has Zion and Brandon Ingram played together for a playoff run?
The rest of the guys are role players except for CJ and Jonas Valanciunas. So you could say this is the third year try of their point guard and center. Perhaps that’s “running it back?”
Pelicans are just a better team and kings have yet to beat them
And I think bulls pull it out. Seems their goal is to win just enough to justify making no changes to the roster lol but hey! They’ve got coby white…so that’s cool…
Chicago will probably make a win-now move if they capture the 8 seed lol
With Zion out, the Pels are going to shoot a lot of 3’s tonight. Works well for Sac who can’t defend the basket. It does mean that the Kings offense has to be smarter than they were against the Warriors. None of the tit for tat, anything you can I do I can do better mentally that plagued the 2nd and 3rd quarters of this basketball team all year long. Efficiency and consistency for 48 minutes. CJ can flip a switch and hit 11 3’s and kill the game. Can’t let that happen.
Heat and Bulls is a tough call. I think I like the pieces that the Bulls are putting out there but Im not sure I see Spo letting his guys lose at home to Demar and Coby White. I’d almost prefer to lose this game so I dont have to get trounced on national TV by the best team in the league in the 1st round.
Yes, Butler and Rozier are out but this is the Bulls without Caruso. And Donovan is no match for Spo, who always gets his teams to overperform. If someone like Jovic can step up in his role I think they’ll eek this out at home.
Bulls vs Heat is close…
Can never count on the Bulls to win an easy one… They’ll find a way to lose…
Coach can’t coach. That’s the bottom line.
Billy D should have bounced for the Kentucky job. He is not a good NBA coach.
Interesting that only ~8% of the voters in this poll got both teams right. (Vegas got it right)
Interesting that Vegas got it right, but then again they’re paid to get it right. As a casual, I’m not looking into the matchup stats regarding how or why the Pelicans might’ve been able to upset the Kings. And without that, we’re missing a piece of the puzzle. You see a significant injury, you tend to assume the other team will win.
Expect for the Bulls. They never fail to disappoint (well, they didn’t disappoint ME because I thought they would lose).
So much for the wisdom of the crowd.