Heat at Kings
Two teams that were very active in front of Thursday's trade deadline will square off when the Miami Heat visit the Sacramento Kings on Friday. The Heat are a surprising success in the Eastern Conference and made some win-now moves while the disappointing Kings moved on from some veterans and set themselves up for the future.
Miami on Wednesday reportedly completed a deal that would bring veteran forward Andre Iguodala over from the Memphis Grizzlies, giving the team an experienced, healthy option in a defensive role that injured forward Justise Winslow (back) struggled to provide. "Winning," Heat star Jimmy Butler told reporters when asked what Iguodala brings to the team. "He knows how to do that on both sides of the ball. He's super smart. There's nothing that he can't do. Everybody else gets to learn from him. We have him who has won (the NBA championship) multiple times, we have (Udonis Haslem) who has won it multiple times. They know what it takes to get there. Not only get there, but to win it. So, myself and everybody else around this locker room, it's somebody else we can lean on." Sacramento picked up a pair of intriguing talents from the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday, swapping disgruntled center Dewayne Dedmon and a pair of draft picks to the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for forward Jabari Parker and center Alex Len. Both Parker (No. 2, 2014) and Len (No. 5, 2013) were high lottery picks who have struggled to meet expectations but were averaging a combined 23.7 points for Atlanta before going down with shoulder and hip injuries, respectively.
TIME: 10 p.m. ET. TV: FS Sun, NBCS California, NBA TV Canada
ABOUT THE HEAT (34-16): Butler left Wednesday's 128-111 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers in the third quarter with a shoulder injury and is day-to-day while the team, which inked Iguodala to a two-year, $30 million extension after completing the trade, isn't sure who will be available as Miami tries to improve a 12-13 road record. "You're used to a lot of change in this league," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters after Wednesday's loss. "It doesn't take away from the human side of it. But our group was focused on the task at hand. It didn't affect anything that happened in between those four lines. What affected us more than anything was the team on the other end. They played great in that second half." The Heat also acquired veterans Jae Crowder and Solomon Hill while shipping out Dion Waiters and James Johnson in the Iguodala deal.
ABOUT THE KINGS (19-31): Parker and Len give Sacramento some salary flexibility and join a squad that won four of its last six games and got 31 points from point guard De'Aaron Fox in a 113-109 win over Minnesota on Monday. The Kings' recent surge comes on the heel of a six-game slide and coincides with coach Luke Walton pushing leading scorer Buddy Hield (20.3 points) to the bench and elevating Bogdan Bogdanovic to the starting lineup. Bogdanovic, who heard his name frequently in trade talks, scored 23 points and went 4-of-5 from 3-point range in Monday's triumph while Hield added 16 points in 20 minutes.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Heat SG Tyler Herro (foot) sat out Wednesday but is traveling with the team and is day-to-day.
2. Fox is averaging 29.7 points on 54.4 percent shooting over the last three games.
3. Miami outlasted Sacramento 118-113 in overtime at home on Jan. 20 to snap a four-game losing streak in the series.