Atlanta Hawks: Rapid Reactions to 123-118 Win vs. Miami Heat

After a thrilling win over the Miami Heat at home, let’s take a look at some rapid reactions to this losing streak-busting win for the Atlanta Hawks.

The Atlanta Hawks defeated the Miami Heat at 123-118 in an entertaining affair that got very close in the 4th quarter, but the young Hawks ultimately prevailed with the help of the team’s cagy veterans.

This was a thrilling battle from start to finish, and the game started off in hilarious manner with both teams canning three-pointers on almost every trip down the court.

Even seven-foot Heat center Hassan Whiteside, he of the lumbering gait and ground-bound game, hit a top of the arc triple in the first quarter. Welcome to the NBA in 2018!

Both teams shot well from distance, though the Heat actually got up 8 more triples in this one (40 to 32) than the Hawks did.

The team’s overall shooting numbers were almost mirror images, but the Atlanta Hawks always seemed to have the answer for the Heat in this one, as the home team ended up with more assists, steals, blocks and defensive rebounds.

The Hawks were able to build their lead on the back of a 41-point 1st quarter, as the team came out scorching hot – shooting 62 percent from the field and 70 percent from deep.

There were many impressive performances from Atlanta Hawks on this night, but none were better than rookie Trae Young’s. Young had what could be deemed his best overall game, as he was playing crunch time minutes down the end of this game and actually playing fairly good defense at times down the stretch.

Ice Trae ended up with 24 points on 9 of 19 shooting (2 of 8 from deep) with 6 rebounds and a new career-high 15 assists. Trae was diming up his teammates early, as he had already logged 4 assists by the end of the 1st quarter.

Trae produced multiple nifty highlights in this one, including perhaps his best highlight play of the season: A full-court, one-handed outlet pass to Kevin Huerter for a jam. When I say full-court, I mean full-court:

Capping it all off with the arrow celebration is too perfect as well.

He also made this stellar pass to fellow rookie Omari Spellman out of a double team from the Heat, leading to a three-pointer:

Trae also crossed Justise Winslow up something proper to help ice the game in the 4th quarter with his smooth handle:

Before that, he left Kelly Olynyk in the dust with a series of moves that had him perplexed and fumbling behind Trae:

Great stuff from the rook. Even when his shot isn’t falling, Trae Young can get to his spots on the floor and dish out beautiful assists to his teammates – encouraging signs in the Atlanta Hawks 9th game of the season.

Though he finished with less of an eye-popping stat line than his fellow first rounder, Kevin Huerter also had a strong night. Playing in a career-high 29 minutes, Huerter was as effortlessly effective as he has been so far in his young career.

His fluid athleticism is on display at almost every opportunity, and his feel and IQ are also supremely high – his efforts sprinting under the basket after a jump ball led to him being the recipient of Trae’s full-court pass.

Seeing Huerter and Young play the most minutes of any Atlanta Hawks players on this night means that coach Lloyd Pierce is fully engaged in the team’s youth movement – even if the veterans played a big role down the end.

Kent Bazemore and Vince Carter (who was replaced in the starting lineup by Omari Spellman) closed this game for the Hawks and both made big plays down the stretch, though Vince’s efforts were the more memorable, including this tip-in dunk (the first of his Atlanta Hawks career):

As you can tell, we were pretty excited about that:

This was a great team win for the Atlanta Hawks and one that they will be able to hang their hat on for a while – at least until their next game.

The Atlanta Hawks play next against the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. EST. Keep it locked to Soaring Down South for all your Atlanta Hawks news and updates.