The Miami Heat, the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference last season, have gotten off to a slow start this season as they adjust to a slightly altered roster. After dropping to a season-worst four games under .500, the Heat have climbed back to 10-11 with three straight wins. They ended a 7-game losing streak on the road on Sunday night with a 106-98 road win over the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday night. Bam Adebayo led the way with 32 points and Caleb Martin added 20 points in the win. The Heat also got a triple-double out of Tyler Herro, who scored 11 points, had 1o assists and 11 rebounds. The Heat took the game over in the third quarter and never looked back.

“It was gutty, it was gutty,” Nick Lowry said about the win. “We held a team like that with two superstar players in Trae (Young) and Dejounte (Murray) to under 100 points. It shows a lot from this team. Tyler stepping up and Bam having another effective offensive night and Caleb Martin. He’s been doing it for us. Just continuing to get better and better.”

The Heat have had their most difficulties this season on the offensive end of the floor. Miami is ranked 26th in field goal percentage overall and 25th in three-point shooting. They are also just 28th in scoring in the league as they prepare to face the NBA’s #1 scoring team. Miami is also just 25th in the league in rebounding so they will not be able to take advantage of the Celtics’ rebounding woes.

Key Injuries: The Heat will likely be without leading scorer Jimmy Butler (knee) and F Duncan Robinson (ankle).

The Boston Celtics are looking like a team that wants to redeem themselves from their NBA Finals defeat to the Warriors last season. The Celtics, still playing without starting center Robert Williams III (knee), have dominated the competition with their offense. On Monday night, the Celtics offense flexed its’ muscles once again in a 140-105 home blowout of the Charlotte Hornets. Marcus Smart led the Celtics with a career-high 15 assists to go along with 22 points. Jayson Tatum led the Celtics with 35 points and Malcolm Brogdon added 21 points as the C’s had a 27-point lead by the end of the first quarter with Smart leading the way.
“He’s always brought it defensively,” Celtics interim coach Joe Mazzulla said. “I have full trust in him diagnosing where the matchup is, where the advantage is, and what can we do to exploit that. And he’s doing a great job anticipating that once he gets the ball.”

The Celtics have been completely dominant on the offensive end this season, after being one of the best defensive teams in the league last season. They lead the NBA in scoring this season and are in the top-five in field goal percentage and 3pt field goal percentage. Both Tatum and Jaylen Brown are averaging career-highs in scoring and newcomer Brogdon has fit in seamlessly with the Celtics. They are 10-1 at home this seaso as well.

Key Injuries: Both Al Horford and Brown missed the Charlotte game with mild injuries but should be ready to go on Wednesday.