Heat-Hawks Injury Report: Promising Young Players Upgraded

The Miami Heat have listed Pelle Larsson and Nikola Jovic as probable and ruled out Kevin Love for tonight's Play-In Tournament game against the Atlanta Hawks.

Erik Spoelstra said he expects Pelle Larsson and Nikola Jovic will be in uniform tonight. Spoelstra said Larsson could play tonight, but seems unlikely that Jovic will be used tonight even if he’s in uniform.
— Anthony Chiang (@Anthony_Chiang) April 18, 2025

Larsson, the Heat's 2024 second round pick, last played on April 7 and ended up spraining his ankle while lifting weights ahead of their game against the Chicago Bulls two days later. Larsson averaged 10.5 points, four rebounds, three assists and 2.2 steals as a starter in his last six games played, while Andrew Wiggins was out with injury. Larsson was available for last game but did not play.

Jovic, the Heat's first round pick in 2022, last played on Feb. 23 when he fractured a metacarpal in his right hand and is averaging about 11 points, four rebounds and three assists for the season. He was listed as questionable for their last game but was ruled out before the game.

Veteran big man Love is away from the team due to personal reasons.

The Atlanta Hawks listed four-time All-Star Trae Young as probable.

Here's the rest of the injury report and game preview:

HEAT

Pelle Larsson: Probable - Ankle

Nikola Jovic: Probable - Hand

Kevin Love: Out - Personal Reasons

Isaiah Stevens: Out - Foot

Dru Smith: Out - Achilles

Kobe Bufkin: Out - Shoulder

HAWKS

Trae Young: Probable - Achilles

Jalen Johnson: Out - Shoulder

Clint Capela: Out - Hand

Larry Nance Jr.: Out - Knee

How To Watch Miami Heat-Atlanta Hawks, Lineups, Injury Report, Betting Line

Game time: 7:00 p.m., State Farm Arena, Atlanta

Betting line: Heat -1, DraftKings

VITALS: The Miami Heat are lining up against the eighth-seeded Atlanta Hawks in this game, as part of the Play-In Tournament. The winner of this game will advance to the Playoffs and play the first-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round.

The Heat and Hawks matched up four times this season. The Heat lost the first two matchups, (110-120 on Dec. 28 and 86-98 on Feb. 24), and won the last two, (131-109 on Feb. 26 and 122-112 on March 27). The Heat are 81-61 all-time versus the Hawks during the regular season, including 52-20 in home games and 29-41 in road games.

PROJECTED STARTERS

HEAT

G Tyler Herro

G Alec Burks

C Kel'el Ware

F Andrew Wiggins

F Bam Adebayo

HAWKS

G Trae Young

G Dyson Daniels

C Oneyka Okongwu

F Zaccharie Risacher

F Mouhamed Gueye

QUOTABLE

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra: "Well I mean the most important thing about today is that we imposed a will defensively and competitively, you know, on the glass, loose balls, things of that nature. Those will remain true as we get to Atlanta. There will be some different specifics to their team and, you know we'll just have to get to it. Our guys love to compete so I don't think they would like two extra days waiting around to get after it."

Alexander Toledo is a contributor to Miami Heat On SI and producer/co-host of the Five on the Floor podcast, covering the Heat and NBA. He can be reached at toledoalexander22@gmail.com. Twitter: @tropicalblanket