The NBA play-in tournament begins today with both No. 8 vs. No. 7 games. As a refresher, the play-in tournament structure is relatively straightforward. The winners of tonight's games secure the seventh seed in their conferences, while the losers await the winner of Wednesday's No. 10 vs No. 9 game for the eighth seed.

Tonight, it's Atlanta-Miami in the East and Minnesota-Los Angeles out West, and we're keeping our approach quite straightforward.

Backing the favorites to both advance

In the play-in tournament's brief history, the seventh seed has never lost, and we're willing to wager that streak lives to see another year.

Atlanta Hawks at Miami Heat (-5)

Miami and Atlanta will get the night started, and we have to back the Heat here. The Heat have won four of their last five games against the Hawks, and Atlanta has dropped four straight meetings in Miami. It's those road woes that ultimately have us favoring the Heat. The Hawks are just 17-24 away from Atlanta this season, while Miami has taken care of business in front of their home faithful, sporting a 27-14 record.

Erik Spoelstra's coaching philosophy has always revolved around defense, and that feels likely to be the difference. The Heat come into this with the seventh-best defensive efficiency mark in the league, while the Hawks are ranked just 22nd. Trae Young has had his struggles against this defense as well, which is going to make an Atlanta victory all the tougher. Young failed to exceed 25 points in any of the four meetings this year, averaging just 34.8% from the field.

We're opting to pass on the spread and put the Heat moneyline in a parlay with the next game.

Minnesota Timberwolves at Los Angeles Lakers (-8)

We admit we're not overthinking this one. The Lakers have been among the NBA's best the past 10 games, winning eight times, and they are 16-7 since the All-Star break. 

The defense is playing well, the offense is figuring things out and they're healthy. Add it all up and it has us liking Los Angeles to easily dispatch Minnesota, especially with Rudy Gobert missing this game due to suspension. The Lakers beat the Timberwolves by 12 just two weeks ago, and we'll bet they do it again tonight.

Betting: Miami and Los Angeles moneyline parlay (-105 DK/FD)

Outlier Trend of the Day

Jimmy Butler — Points

Jimmy Butler has failed to exceed 28.5 points in 15 of his last 16 games against bottom 10 scoring defenses (24.4 points/game average).

Jimmy Butler under 28.5 points (-140 FD)

In the news ...

Rudy Gobert suspended for Minnesota's play-in game vs. Lakers for punching teammate — Rudy Gobert, who Minnesota acquired in a massive trade that looks even worse now, is suspended for tonight's game against the Lakers. The punishment stems from punching teammate Kyle Anderson during a timeout in the team's regular-season finale on Sunday.

Zion Williamson reportedly not even close to returning — In an appearance on "The Pat McAfee Show," NBA Insider Shams Charania indicated that the Pelicans' Zion Williamson is unlikely to return this season. It seems the hamstring injury that Williamson suffered in January is largely healed, but his conditioning is not where it needs to be to return to action. It's another disappointing development for a player who has played in just 114 games since being drafted in 2019. Don't go rushing to place those New Orleans futures at +60000.

Rory McIlroy withdraws from RBC Heritage after missing cut at Masters — McIlroy has missed the cut in two of his last three starts and appears to be taking a brief step back to right the ship by withdrawing from this weekend's RBC Heritage. Scottie Scheffler is the favorite to win at +800, followed by Jon Rahm at +900.

Today's Bark Bets is written by Griffin Carroll