Battle In The East

Since the institution of the play-in tournament in the 2020-21 season, seeding has never been more important. Now, only the top six seeds are guaranteed entrance into the first round of the playoffs, with the 7-10 seeds needing to win at least a one-game playoff to get in. Following the Bucks, Celtics, Sixers and Cavs all likely locking down home court advantage, plus the Knicks knocking on the door (shout out IQ), five teams are jockeying for positioning heading into the season's final stretch 👇

• 6th: Nets, 36-28

• 7th: Heat, 34-31

• 8th: Hawks, 32-32

• 9th: Raptors, 32-33

• 10th: Wizards, 30-34

This race is even closer than it seems, since these teams are trending in opposite directions from their current place in the standings. The Raptors are hot, while the Nets have struggled since dealing Kyrie and KD. But it's still good to see videos like this in Brooklyn 🙏

Tonight, two of these teams will face-off for a chance to gain some ground on each other. Miami took care of business vs. the Hawks at home on Saturday, so we'll see if they can make it two in a row 📝

Hawks vs. Heat Betting Preview (subject to change)

• Spread: Heat -3

• Moneyline: Heat -148 (bet $148, win $100), Hawks +126 (bet $100, win $126)

• O/U: 227

Winner-Take-All

After the Heat win on Saturday, the winner of tonight's game will take the season series between the two teams. Since they are virtually neck-and-neck in the standings, and the Nets continue to slide, tonight's game could be the difference between the first round and the play-in for either squad 🔀

With fewer than 20 games to go in the season, one statistical model expects the Hawks and Heat to finish where they're ranked today. However, the Hawks have gone 3-2 since replacing Nate McMillan with Quin Snyder, and would love to see their new leader guide them towards a playoff run like the one they experienced in '20-21. To add more fuel to the fire, the Heat needed just five games to knock Atlanta out of the first round last year 😤

Meanwhile, the Heat have struggled to find their footing since adding Kevin Love on the buyout market, losing four of six games with him. Despite the team going positive in his minutes, Love has started every game and shot just 25.8% on more than five threes per game. Three of their four losses came against teams directly above them in the standings, including one on a miracle heave from Julius Randle. They still have a chance to unlock another gear as soon as Love starts knocking down shots like he's used to doing 🏹

I still can't get over that Randle shot, apparently it's just the fifth double bang of Mike Breen's career 👀

For My Parlay Gurus

Losing two in a row would be tough for the Hawks to make up, so I'm feeling Atlanta to play with a senseIf of urgency tonight. I'll take them with the points, and throw in the Kings after a loss. Check it out 👇

• Hawks +3 @ Heat: -110

• Kings -5.5 vs. Pelicans: -110

$100 on this bet would win you $264 — if we hit, make sure you email [email protected] for a chance to win up to $100*. Many will enter, only some will win 😉

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