Mavericks vs Heat Preview and Game Thread: Dallas stays on the road in Miami

Apr 1, 2023 - 10:10 PM

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The Dallas Mavericks (37-40) pay their fourth straight road game, this time against the Miami Heat (40-37) Saturday night on NBAtv or BallySports Southwest. It’s an important game for both teams. Dallas needs to figure out what they want as an organization. It’s assumed they still want to make the NBA Play-in, though why they want that doesn’t make much sense as they’d have to win a lot of games in a row once they got there and Dallas simply cannot do that based on a season’s worth of evidence. The Heat are on a three-game spiral and are the top seed in the East’s Play-in tournament. If they want to hold that seed or hope to climb out, they need to beat the Mavericks. Here are the main things you need to know:

• WHO: Dallas Mavericks at Miami Heat
• WHAT: Basketball? Existential dread?
• WHERE: Miami-Dade Arena, Miami, FL
• WHEN: 6:30 p.m. CST
• HOW: NBAtv or Bally Sports Southwest

The Mavericks just have Frank Ntilikina on the injury report. After three days of rest, this isn’t surprising, most of what Dallas is dealing with at this point in the season is wear and tear. The Heat, meanwhile, will be without All-Star Center Bam Adebayo and Nikola Jovic. Kyle Lowry is questionable at the moment.

Omer Yurtseven, a guy most fans may not be familiar with, is one dude to keep an eye on. As the Mavericks are still a small team, his large body might be difficult to handle. Also, watching playoffs Jimmy Butler should be a lot of fun.

Let’s see what these Mavericks want. The players are going to keep playing. The coach is going to keep standing there. The GM will keep wondering why he took this job. Here’s a piece I recommend everyone read on the state of Dallas.

We’ll be back after the game with stuff! Consider subscribing to our new YouTube Channel as well and get notified of postgame live shows!