The reason Kevin Love stepped away from Heat before Hawks play-in game |
18/04/2025 18:52 -
As the Miami Heat take on the Atlanta Hawks in a do-or-die game with the winner going to the playoffs and the loser going home, veteran Kevin Love will not be available for the contest on Friday night. With people locking in their predictions for the Heat’s game against the Hawks in the play-in tournament, Love will be absent, as the reason has been revealed.
ClutchPoints confirmed with the team that Love has left to attend to personal family matters so he will miss Friday against Atlanta. This wouldn’t be the first time the veteran has missed games due to what has been listed as “personal reasons” with the five-time All-Star appearing in 23 games this season where’s averaging 5.3 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.0 assists while shooting 35.7 percent from the field, 35.8 percent from three-point range.
The last time Love played for Miami was on March 21 against the Houston Rockets where he only played six minutes as the last time before that was on March 7 against the Minnesota Timberwolves. On the season, he’s averaged 10.9 minutes per game as one can tell the playing time has been sparse.
Heat will be without Kevin Love for the crucial play-in game vs. the Hawks
As the Heat look to make play-in tournament history, Love was originally listed as “questionable” coming into Friday’s outing due to “Return to Competition Reconditioning.” Still, the team has dealt with absences besides Love before, honing in on the mindset that the team is “halfway” to the playoffs, as a key aspect will be bringing the defensive intensity to the Hawks, as said by head coach Erik Spoelstra.
"We're only halfway there," Spoelstra said. "We didn't have the luxury of having the one game, and then you're automatically in."
"The most important thing about today is that we imposed a will defensively and competitively," Spoelstra said after Wednesday's victory in Chicago. "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 we'll just have to get to it."
During last night’s post-game press conference, Erik Spoelstra was asked about his message to the team.
Spo (smirking): Uh… none of your business?
(YT: Miami Heat) pic.twitter.com/5S9y8IIbep
— Heat Diehards (@HeatDiehards) April 17, 2025
At any rate, Miami will be led by Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo in hopefully achieving play-in tournament history in being the first tenth seed to make it through and punch their ticket to the playoffs. If so, they would face the No. 1 seed Cleveland Cavaliers, but they will have to get through Atlanta first on Friday night.
The post The reason Kevin Love stepped away from Heat before Hawks play-in game appeared first on ClutchPoints.
