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Magic at Heat GameThread

The Orlando Magic finish up the sixth game of their Road-trip against the 9-13 Miami Heat. Can they climb back to .500?

NBA: Miami Heat at Orlando Magic Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports

The Orlando Magic have the chance to break even on their six-game road trip with a victory tonight over the 9-13 Miami Heat.

More importantly, a victory buys the Magic a bit more breathing room in their race with the Wizards and Heat for the final spot in the eastern conference playoffs.

With a fearful slate of contests on the current road trip in the Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, Portland Trailblazers, Los Angeles Lakers and the Phoenix Suns, the Magic faithful have to be thrilled with the opportunity to come away unblemished from the .500 mark they held just two weeks ago at 9-9.

Head Coach Erik Spoelstra’s unit will not make things easy, and will look to avenge their opening night loss to these Magic 104-101, albeit without their primary signal-caller in Goran Dragic. But don’t feel sorry for the free-falling Miami Heat who were losers of five of six until one week ago. They’ve since responded with impressive victories over the New Orleans Pelicans and Utah Jazz, and return Rodney McGruder and Tyler Johnson to this scrappy lineup.

Game Info

When: Tuesday, December 4 at 7:30 p.m. ET

Where: AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami, FL

TV: Fox Sports Florida

Win Probability: According the FiveThirtyEight the Heat have an 64% chance to win.

Probable Starters

Orlando: D.J. Augustine, Evan Fournier, Jonathan Isaac, Aaron Gordon, Nikola Vucevic

Miami: Josh Richardson, Wayne Ellington, Rodney McGruder, James Johnson, Hassan Whiteside

Injury Report

Magic: Timofey Mozgov (Out)

Heat: Dion Waiters (Out/ankle), Tyler Johnson (Probable/hamstring), Goran Dragic (Out/knee), Derrick Jones Jr.(Probable), Rodney McGruder (Questionable/ankle)

Miami Orlando
Pace: 100.5 (10th) Pace: 98.5 (23rd)
ORtg: 107.2 (25th) ORtg: 107.5(24th)
DRtg: 108.6 (12th) DRtg: 109.8 (15th)
Projected Starters:
Miami Orlando
PG - Rodney McGruder PG - D.J. Augustin
SG - Josh Richardson SG - Evan Fournier
SF - Wayne Ellington F - Jonathan Simmons
F - James Johnson PF - Aaron Gordon
C - Hassan Whiteside C - Nikola Vucevic

Check out our site’s preview of tonight’s Magic/Suns match-up provided by Mike here.

For perspective from the other side, make sure to check out the work from our friends over at Hot Hot Hoops.

Leave your pregame and in-game comments below. Feel free to follow us on Twitter at @OPPMagicBlog. And as always - enjoy!