The Portland Trail Blazers are in Miami to take on the Heat to start a five-game road trip. Portland is coming off of a win over the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in their last game. On the other
side, the Heat are on the second night of a back-to-back after taking down the Charlotte Hornets to open their Emirates NBA Cup schedule.
How to Watch
Portland Trail Blazers (5-3) vs. Miami Heat (5-4)
– Saturday, November 8 – 5:00pm PacificHow to watch via antenna or cable: See your options on the Rip City Television Network
How to watch via streaming: BlazerVision in Oregon and Washington; League Pass everywhere else.
How to listen: Trail Blazers Audio Network
Trail Blazers injuries: Scoot Henderson, Damian Lillard, Matisse Thybulle, Blake Wesley (Out); Shaedon Sharpe (Probable)
Heat injuries: Tyler Herro, Bam Adebayo, Terry Rozier (Out); Jaime Jaquez, Norman Powell (Questionable)
What to Watch For:
Getting Out And Running. The Trail Blazers are currently third in the NBA in pace, but the Heat sit in first place. Matching up two of the quickest teams will likely lead to an exciting contest where both teams try to outrun the other throughout the course of the contest. Portland and Miami also sit first and sixth respectively in steals per game. The result of this matchup will likely be a lot of transition opportunities and points off of turnovers.
Offensive Glass. The Blazers struggle to score efficiently, shooting just 44.6% from the field and 33.8% from three. However, they make up for it by grabbing 13.8 offensive rebounds per game which puts them sixth in the NBA. The Heat, on the other hand, prefer to score the old fashioned way; on their first shot. They sit fifth in the NBA in both field goal percentage and three-point percentage, but dead last with just 8.3 offensive rebounds per game. If Portland is able to control the glass on their own misses while also forcing Miami to miss more of their shots than normal, that could prove a major advantage for the Blazers. Otherwise, allowing the Heat to play their normal game could cause Portland to be shot out of the building.
What Others Are Saying:
Miami Heat on SI’s Brady Hawk talks about the impressive first quarter scoring from Norman Powell to start the season.
Powell currently sits second in the entire NBA in first quarter points a game this year, with 10.2 points a night, only behind Luka Doncic who sits at 13.2 points on his way to a possible MVP type season.
There’s an even more impressive element to this stat. A lot of star players in the league have their substitution pattern set to playing the first 12 minutes of each half, before sitting early in the second and fourth quarters. Guys like Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic have sustained that minute distribution for some time now.
But not Powell. Out of the top 10 first quarter scorers, his minutes are the lowest. He’s playing less than 75% of the first quarter, yet maximizing his time with quick fires from deep, trips to the free throw line, and just efficient basketball with the limited dribbles he uses.
