Filip Tomic

It wasn’t the best of starts to the 6-game road trip for the Golden State Warriors, who lost 124-115 at Atlanta on Saturday. Things should heat up (literally) on Tuesday night as they go into South Beach for a date with Jimmy Butler’s former team. Revenge will be on the minds of the Warriors players, who are trying to even the regular-season series after losing the first meeting back in January 114-98. Butler did not play for Miami in that game, as Golden State got burned by 6 other Heat players all scoring in double-figures.

Miami got a much-needed win over the weekend as they ended a 10-game losing streak with a 122-105 triumph over the lowly Charlotte Hornets. It was their longest losing streak in over a decade and a half, keeping their hopes of catching the Bulls in 9th somewhat alive. Over their last 11 games the Heat rank 29th in offensive rating and 16th on defense. Nikola Jovic, who had 20 points off the bench in the first meeting is out for this one, so Miami will have to find other options to rely on to score points. I don’t really buy that the Heat issues have gone away after just 1 win, especially since that win was against a Hornets team that’s among the worst teams in the NBA. If Curry plays then this should be all Warriors.

Facing his former team, you just know that Butler will be amped up to prove to the Heat that they were wrong for not giving him the max contract extension he was looking for. Instead, the team pivoted to other options and shipped him to Golden State, getting Andrew Wiggins in return. In his last 10 games with the Warriors, he is averaging 19 points per game, but Jimmy has upped that to 22 per game over his last 4 outings, clearing this line 3 times. The main reason for that, of course, is the absence of Stephen Curry, whose status is still up in the air for this game.

Even if Curry does play, I still feel like the entire Warriors roster will try to get Butler involved as much as possible so that he can prove a point to Miami. This Heat defense has been atrocious during their 10-game losing streak, and until we see a substantial improvement on that end it’s hard to trust them. Butler is one of those players whose numbers go up as the importance of the game increases. It doesn’t get much bigger than this for Butler in these remaining 10 or so games of the regular season. Let’s back him to have a big game in Miami on Tuesday.

One of the most important players on this Heat franchise since Butler’s departure is Tyler Herro. From a scoring standpoint, he is enjoying a career year and averaging 23.5 points per game, up almost 3 points compared to last year. His efficiency has also stayed roughly the same, with splits of 46-36-86 from the field, three-point land and the foul line. Herro is also trying to prove a point here, as many people have pointed the finger at him during this 10-game losing streak, and a lot more is expected from the player who was picked to be Butler’s successor.

Golden State’s three-point defense has struggled a bit over the last 3 games with them allowing opponents to shoot 38% from that area. With Curry out of the lineup, Herro should have a ton of extra energy available as he won’t have to chase the all-time three-point leader around the perimeter all night long. Let’s hope he can do some damage from beyond the arc in this game and bring home our Warriors vs Heat Same Game Parlay.