The Eastern Conference side of the NBA Play-In Tournament starts on Wednesday with three teams back from last year’s four-team field. The Miami Heat, Atlanta Hawks and Chicago Bulls are in the Play-In Tournament for the second season in a row and are joined by the Philadelphia 76ers, who look dangerous again with Joel Embiid back from injury.
The 76ers are favored at home against the Heat to earn the No. 7 seed in the playoffs, while the Bulls are favored at home against the Hawks in the elimination game. The 76ers are a massive favorite to make the playoffs with -2000 odds on BetMGM. Philly would have to lose two games at home to not make it. Even though the Heat are an underdog Wednesday, Miami is -600 to make the playoffs. The Bulls (+500) and Hawks (+650) are both long shots to advance from the Play-In Tournament.
Here is a preview of Wednesday’s games with staff picks.
All odds from BetMGM. Find the best deals on StubHub for tickets.
No. 8 Heat at No. 7 76ers
How to watch: 7 p.m. ET on ESPN
The Heat became the poster child for the Play-In Tournament last year when they made the NBA Finals after entering the playoffs as the No. 8 seed. That run almost didn’t happen, though. Miami entered the Play-In Tournament as the No. 7 seed and lost the first game at home to Atlanta. The Heat also trailed with less than 2 1/2 minutes left in the do-or-die No. 8-seed game at home against Chicago. The Heat closed that game on a 13-1 run and then blitzed through the Eastern Conference Playoffs.
Miami can avoid any similar drama with a win in Philadelphia. It’s a marquee matchup of stars, with Joel Embiid leading Philadelphia against Jimmy Butler’s Heat. Embiid missed all of February and March due to injury and returned for the five games in April. The 76ers won all five, and Embiid averaged 30.4 points and 9.2 rebounds in those games. A healthy and rolling Embiid makes the 76ers a scary No. 7 seed.
The winner of this game gets the No. 2-seed New York Knicks next. Plenty of people would be picking against the Knicks vs. either team.
Expert picks
No. 10 Hawks at No. 9 Bulls
How to watch: 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN
In our Slack channel where we coordinate picks for these games, Sam Vecenie chose to use the vomiting emoji (🤮) instead of picking a team, which says a lot about the national perception of this game. Neither team won 40 games in the regular season and it’s hard to imagine either making a run in the playoffs like with the Heat or 76ers.
It is easy to picture the Bulls and Hawks being the Spider-Man meme, pointing at each other and seeing a lot of themselves in the other team. Both teams have hovered around .500 the past few seasons, with big-name players unable to lead them into anything relevant but preventing them from being bad enough to go into tank/rebuild mode.
Stars on both sides have also dealt with injuries, and their teams have played better without them this season. Trae Young missed 28 games in the regular season, and the Hawks were 14-14 in his absence but 22-32 when he played.
Meanwhile, the Bulls were only 10-15 when Zach LaVine played and 29-28 without him. It’s not like either team turned into world-beaters in the absence of those highly-paid scorers, but it is a weird trend that they had better records without them.
Young returned to action for the final three games of the regular season, all losses, and averaged just 15 points in 26.7 minutes in those games. LaVine is out for the season, so DeMar DeRozan and the improved Coby White will likely lead the way for the Bulls.
The winner of this game travels to the loser of the 76ers-Heat game with the No. 8 seed on the line.
Expert picks
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(Photo of Jimmy Butler: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
