Sunday's NBA playoff previews
HEAT vs HAWKS
Game 1 on TNT at 1 PM, bumping an airing of 1997’s Michael Douglas thriller with a twist, ‘The Game’
C: Bam Adebayo — playmaking duties took a hit with Lowry on board so Bam concentrated on rebounding and dominating defensively for the NBA’s fifth-best opposition.
PF: P.J. Tucker — picked a fine year to establish career highs in field goal percentage, three-point range (41 percent) and assist rate.
F: Max Strus — cranked 41 percent from deep for the NBA’s most accurate three-point club, turned it over only 57 times in 1587 minutes for a team that likes to hand the other club the ball an average of 288 times a game.
SG: Jimmy Butler — if something doesn’t work, it’ll be because of basketball.
PG: Kyle Lowry — 13.4 points and 7.5 assists per 34 minutes in Kyle’s first season with the Heat club he joined in 2020.