Both the Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks won in the play-in tournament on Wednesday night and they are now just one win away from the postseason proper.
Miami dominates Chicago
Despite both teams coming into their games on Thursday night as the underdogs, Miami and Dallas both caused upsets on the road this week to advance to the final of the play-in tournament.
The Miami Heat came out firing in Chicago and the Bulls had no answer as their opponents who couldn’t miss with 71 points in the first half.
Tyler Herro spearheaded the Miami offense and by half time his team had a 24 point lead with one foot already in the final play-in game. Herro had 38 points in the victory, with Andrew Wiggins adding 20 and Bam Adebayo scoring a 15 point double double.
Despite the Bulls putting up a fight in the second half it was very much too little too late as the Heat held on for a 19-point win.
Dallas shocks Sacramento
While the Heat wasn’t favored against the Bulls, the odds were much closer in that game than they were in the Mavericks-Kings clash.
Without Luka Doncic and the injured Kyrie Irving, the Dallas Mavericks were given no chance of making the postseason by most fans this year, but they provided a shock on Wednesday.
In a similar story to the Heat, Dallas scored 71 in the first half with the game already all but over before the break when they had a 23 point lead.
Anthony Davis led all scores for Dallas in his first postseason game with the team and his 27 points along with Klay Thompson’s 23 was enough tot secure a convincing win in Sacramento.
When is the final play-in game?
Winning on Thursday means nothing in the grand scheme of things if the Heat and Mavericks don’t win their final game of the play-in tournament this weekend.
Both teams will play on Saturday night, with the first round of the playoffs tipping off just before the play-in concludes.
The Heat will head to Atlanta to face the Hawks, while the Mavericks face the Grizzlies in Memphis.
- Miami Heat @ Atlanta Hawks: 7:30 ET
- Dallas Mavericks @ Memphis Grizzlies: 9:30 ET
The prize for winning the play-in tournament isn’t great though, as even though the winner will be in the playoffs, they will have to face Cleveland and Oklahoma in a difficult first round matchup.
Miami is 1.0-point underdogs against Atlanta, while Dallas is 6.5-point dogs in Memphis according to the best online sportsbooks.
