Miami Heat vs Atlanta Hawks NBA Picks, Odds, Predictions 10/4/21
Atlanta Hawks vs Miami Heat
October 4, 2021 7:30 pm EDT
The Line: Miami Heat / Atlanta Hawks
(Get latest betting odds)
The Atlanta Hawks and Miami Heat meet Monday in NBA preseason action at the FTX Arena. The Atlanta Hawks are coming off an Eastern Conference Finals trip and hope to build on that in the first full season under coach Nate McMillan. The Miami Heat won 40 games last season and enter the 14th season under coach Erik Spoelstra.
The Atlanta Hawks didn’t make a ton of moves this offseason outside of signing Gorgui Deng, trading for Delon Wright and drafting Jalen Johnson. The main focus for the Hawks was keeping their young core together of Trae Young, John Collins, Clint Capela, De’Andre Hunter and Bogdan Bogdanovic. That starting five has proven it can go deep into the playoffs and the Hawks shouldn’t be afraid of anybody entering this season. A healthy Cam Reddish makes the Hawks that much stronger and a full season of Danilo Gallinari wouldn’t hurt either. The only issue is the Hawks aren’t surprising anybody this season, so they enter this year with a bit of a target on their back.
The Miami Heat got swept in the first round of the playoffs and decided to shake things up by bringing in Kyle Lowry, PJ Tucker and Markieff Morris. The Heat said goodbye to Goran Dragic, Kendrick Nunn, Andre Iguodala and Precious Achiuwa, among others. The addition of Lowry gives the Heat the true point guard they’ve been missing for a while and he should help unlock the potential of Bam Adebayo. It also takes pressure off Jimmy Butler to do everything on the offensive side. Tyler Herro has bulked up this offseason and moves to his natural position of shooting guard, while Max Strus is expected to see an expended role. The Heat have a deep roster and are loaded with physical, defensive minded players. The Heat should break the spirit of a lot of teams this season.
The Hawks are 4-11-1 ATS in their last 16 Monday games and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games overall. The under is 15-6 in Hawks last 21 overall. The over is 13-4 in Heat last 17 overall. The under is 22-7 in the last 29 meetings in Miami.
The Atlanta Hawks had the Heat’s number last season and I’m sure that will show in the line a little bit. However, the Heat are one of those franchises that plays hard regardless of regular season, playoffs, summer league or preseason. With all of the tough minded vets on this Heat’s roster and the competitive nature they bring to the table, the Heat are a safe team to back in these sort of spots.
Give me the Heat at home.