Miami is clawing for seeding to avoid another play-in appearance. The Wizards just want to keep on winning.
The Washington Wizards are hosting the Miami Heat on Easter Sunday. Miami is fighting for its playoff life, while Washington is coming off of laying an egg against the Detroit Pistons on Friday.
Expect the Miami Heat to come out guns-blazing in Capital One Arena: they need every single win they can get to rise in the standings out of the play-in. The Heat are currently the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference, one game back of the 6th-place Indiana Pacers and a game and half up on the 8th-place Philadelphia 76ers. Though they made the NBA Finals last year after weathering the play-in tournament, avoiding single-elimination play while reducing the number of games Jimmy Butler has to play is certainly in Miami’s best interest.
The Wizards, meanwhile, need to bounce back after a brutal loss against the Pistons. Corey Kispert dropped a cool 23 points on 5-for-7 shooting from deep and Deni Avdija flirted with a triple-double, but the rest of the Wizards seemed to have stayed home that night. In fact, Washington’s bench mustered just 12 total points.
Heat at Wizards tips off Sunday night at 7 p.m. EST.