Atlanta Hawks Game Preview: Feb. 24 vs. Miami Heat

The Atlanta Hawks start the “second half” of their season tonight against the Miami Heat.

The NBA is back! The Atlanta Hawks return to the court tonight to battle the Miami Heat. Hawks fans no longer have to scour YouTube searching out videos from the magical 2014-15 season to satiate their need for Hawks basketball. Though, it’s good for one’s sanity to do that at least once per month.

It’s been a busy few days for the organization. On Wednesday, they acquired Ersan Ilyasova from the Philadelphia 76ers for Tiago Splitter, a second-round pick, and a second-round pick swap. Thursday, they traded Mike Scott to the Phoenix Suns for cash considerations.

They finished Thursday by signing Ryan Kelly and Lamar Patterson to end of season contracts, according to Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In the end the Hawks added Ilyasova, Kelly, and Patterson, while subtracting Splitter and Scott. Isn’t math fun?

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Their first test with their newly assembled roster comes against the Miami Heat. The Heat struggled to start the season, but have come on strong of late. Recently they won 13 games in a row, and they won 14 of their last 16 games heading into the All-Star break.

They even knocked off the Hawks during that 13-game winning streak. On Feb.1, the Heat trounced Atlanta 116-93. They outscored the Hawks by seven points in the first quarter and eight points in the second quarter to establish a 15-point half-time lead. The Hawks never recovered from the early deficit.

Goran Dragic torched the nets for 27 points on 8-for-13 shooting. He also collected fives assists and grabbed five rebounds. The suddenly competent Dion Waiters finished with 20 points and seven rebounds on 9-for-15 shooting and 2-for-4 from three-point range.

As a team Miami shot 48.4 percent from the field and 37.5 percent from three-point distance. The win was their ninth in a row. Atlanta’s shooting was not quite as efficient. In fact, it was just plain bad.

The Hawks shot 39.5 percent overall and 26.9 percent from three-point range. The unscientific eye test suggested that their performance was more about the Hawks shooting poorly, rather than Miami turning in a particularly suffocating defensive performance.

Kent Bazemore led Atlanta with 14 points, Dennis Schroder added in 12 points, and Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 10 points on 2-for-9 shooting. It was an offensive performance the Hawks would like to forget and never replicate. We’ll see if they can get a little revenge tonight.

Is Miami a good team now? That might be a stretch, but it’s hard to discount 13 wins in a row. Early in the season it appeared that they would be bound for the lottery. Now they are within 2.5 games of 8th place in the Eastern Conference. A four-game date with the Cleveland Cavaliers hardly seems worth the trouble, but Miami seems determined to enter the playoff conversation.

Goran Dragic is a large reason why Miami has suddenly found themselves competitive. Dragic is having a fantastic season. If the Eastern Conference wasn’t so flush with outstanding point guards Dragic might have been an All-Star.

In 49 games Dragic is averaging 20.3 points and 6.2 assists per game on 48.5 percent shooting and 42.6 percent from three-point range. He’s Miami’s leading scorer and the engine that makes their offense go.

Dion Waiters has garnered most of the headlines during this successful stretch. In February, he’s averaging 19.8 points per game on 51.4 percent from the floor and 42.9 percent from outside. Waiters Island is back up and running! Waiters has given the Heat a scoring jolt from the shooting guard spot. He’s finally playing like the player he has always thought he was.

Hassan Whiteside has been solid for Miami after signing a hefty contract last summer. Whiteside is averaging a double-double with 16.8 points and 14.1 rebounds per game on 56.1 percent shooting. It will be interesting to see him match-up with Atlanta’s double-double machine, Dwight Howard.

In that Feb. 1 contest, Whiteside was fouled hard by Taurean Prince, leading to a skirmish. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail this time.

I’ll be most interested to see how Mike Budenholzer works Ersan Ilyasova into Atlanta’s rotation tonight. I imagine he’ll ease him in, but Ilyasova is a savvy veteran that might be able to assimilate immediately. They’ll definitely be happy to have his outside shooting and stellar positional defense for 20 minutes per game.

It looks like he’s ready to go.

I expect the Hawks to come out of the gates playing well. They are getting prepared for the playoff push and it will be important to get things started the right way. The Hawks will come away with a close, but relatively easy, victory to start the “second half” of their season.

Next: Grading The Ersan Ilyasova Trade

Who:  Miami Heat (25-32) @ Atlanta Hawks (32-24) 

When: 8:00 PM EST, Friday, February 24th, 2017

Where: Phillips Arena 

How: Fox Sports Southeast 

Prediction:  Hawks 104 Heat 97