Inside The Heat

How To Watch Miami Heat-Houston Rockets, Lineups, Injury Report, Betting Lines

Shandel Richardson

Dec 28, 2024; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro (14) tries to get to the basket against the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images
Dec 28, 2024; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro (14) tries to get to the basket against the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images / Dale Zanine-Imagn Images
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Game time: 6 p.m., Toyota Center, Houston


TV: FanDuel Sports Network

Betting line: Heat +8.5

VITALS: The Heat and Rockets meet for the first of two regular season matchups. Last season, Miami swept the series, 2-0, and has swept the last four-straight series, having won a franchise-best eight consecutive against Houston. The eat are 41-33 all-time versus the Rockets during the regular season, including 25-13 in home games and 16-20 in road games.


PROJECTED STARTERS

HEAT

G Duncan Robinson

G Tyler Herro

C Bam Adebayo

F Haywood Highsmith

F Jaime Jaquez

ROCKETS

F Amen Thompson

F Jabari Smith

C Alperen Sengun

G Jalen Green

G Fred VanVleet

INJUY REPORT

HEAT

Jimmy Butler: Out - conditioning

Dru Smith: Out - Achilles

Josh Richardson: Out - Heel

Nikola Jovic: Questionable - Ankle

Terry Rozier: Probable - Knee

Pelle Larsson: Probable - Ankle

ROCKETS

Dillon Brooks: Questionable - Ankle

N'Faly Dante: Out - G League

Tari Eason: Questionable - Leg

Jack McVeigh: Out - G League

Nate Williams: Out - G League

QUOTABLE

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra on Sacramento firing Mike Brown: “Some of our best moments have been when we’ve lost, or we struggled with things, and you all get in a room, and basically the organization says, ‘Figure it the F out. There are no changes. So I feel for Mike, having to go through that. He was the same guy who was Coach of the Year less than 24 months ago,” Spoelstra added. “This league is hard. You have to go through adversity together as an entire organization if you’re going to break through and get to the other side.”

Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Miami Heat On SI. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com

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Shandel Richardson
SHANDEL RICHARDSON

Shandel has covered the NBA since 2010, with previous stops at The Athletic and South Florida Sun-Sentinel.  He has covered six NBA Finals, one Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball tournament. He has also been a beat writer for the Miami Hurricanes and contributed on every major beat in South Florida since 2003, including the Miami Dolphins and Miami Marlins. He can also be read in the Sportsbook Review for gambling coverage from around the NBA. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Shandel attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He's also worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star.  TWITTER: @ShandelRich EMAIL: shandelrich@gmail.com You can subscribe to our YouTube channel here Follow all of our Miami Heat coverage on Facebook here