The NBA Global Games series returns Saturday night with a showdown between Eastern Conference foes, the Miami Heat and Washington Wizards, in Mexico City.
This Dia de Los Muertos game is one of the league’s three international matchups this season and marks the 14th time the NBA has held a regular-season contest in the Mexican capital.
Both teams will be missing key players. Miami forwards Duncan Robinson and Kevin Love are out for personal reasons, while the Wizards will be without Kyle Kuzma (groin), Saddiq Bey (knee), and Malcolm Brogdon (thumb).
The Heat’s offense has a new look this season. Jimmy Butler, who has led or tied for the team lead in points per game for the past five seasons, has seen Tyler Herro take on a bigger role. Herro leads the team in points (22.2) and field goal attempts (16.5) per game, followed by Terry Rozier with 18.5 points and 14.3 attempts per game.
Butler is shooting a team-high 48.8 percent from the field on just 10.8 shots per game and averaging 16.8 points per game, which would be his lowest in over a decade. Bam Adebayo’s production has also dropped significantly, with the center averaging just 11 points per game on 39.5 percent shooting, down from 19.3 points and 52.1 percent last season.
The Wizards head to Mexico City after sweeping a home-and-home series against Atlanta, following losses to Boston and Cleveland to start the season. Kuzma exited their first win over Atlanta in the fourth quarter, but the Wizards still managed a 13-point victory in the second game without him.
Jordan Poole leads Washington with 22.5 points per game, showcasing impressive 3-point shooting by hitting 57.1 percent of his shots from beyond the arc on nearly nine attempts per game.
Second-year player Bilal Coulibaly has emerged as a scoring threat with Kuzma out of the lineup, scoring a career-high 27 points in the Wizards’ last game, raising his season average to 18.8 points per game.
After Saturday’s game, the Wizards and Heat won’t meet again until March 3 in Miami, followed by games on March 31 and April 13, the final day of the regular season.
