After an extremely interesting offseason in the NBA, we are slowly getting closer to the start of the 2017/2018 regular season. The 2017/2018 NBA season will begin on October 17, but teams will play a couple of games before that as a part of the preseason. Almost every team in the NBA has made some changes throughout the course of the 2017 offseason and the fans are excited to see their favorite teams and players performing on the court. There were two games played on Sunday night in the NBA as a part of the preseason schedule, the Heat hosted the Hawks while the Raptors played against the Clippers.

Tyler Johnson with 14 points for Miami

The Miami Heat hosted the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday night in front of their home crowd in Miami at American Airlines Arena. Atlanta came into this matchup without several key players from last season, including Paul Millsap and Dwight Howard. The Hawks decided this offseason to move on without Millsap and Howard as the team traded both of them. Nevertheless, they came ready to play on Sunday and showed great effort in the AmericanAirlines Arena. After leading 25-16 after the first quarter, the Hawks held a 42-39 lead at halftime. It was in the third quarter when the Heat started to play better offensively and defensively. Heading into the final period of the game, Miami led 74-66.

Even though Atlanta outscored Miami 24-22 in the fourth quarter, the Heat took a 96-90 victory.

Three players scored in double digits for the Heat on Sunday night. Tyler Johnson led all scorers with 14 points off the bench, while Josh Richardson added 12 and Rodney McGruder scored 10 points for the Heat. For the Hawks, it was Dennis Schroder who led them on Sunday with 12 points and five assists.

Dewayne Dedmon helped with 10 points for Atlanta.

Raptors with a convincing victory over Clippers

The Toronto Raptors and the Los Angeles Clippers played their preseason game on Sunday at the Stan Sheriff Center in Hawaii. The fans in Hawaii expected to see an exciting matchup and so it was. It was a high-paced game from the opening whistle, and at halftime, the Clippers held a 61-60 lead.

It was a close game after three periods of playing time, with the Raptors leading 91-90 heading into the fourth quarter. Toronto outscored Los Angeles 30-23 in the final 12 minutes of the game and celebrated a 121-113 victory.

Kyle Lowry led the Raptors in scoring with 17 points and four assists, while Norman Powell added 16 points for Toronto off the bench. For the Clippers, five players scored at least 10 points with Blake Griffin leading all scorers with 18 points. Lou Williams added 17 points in 23 minutes of playing time for the Clippers.
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