Atlanta Hawks: Rapid Reactions to Sloppy One-Point Loss to Heat

Rapid reaction to the Atlanta Hawks first defeat of the season against the Miami Heat.

Looking for a season sweep of their division rival, the Atlanta Hawks traveled to South Beach to take on the Heat. They fought hard down the stretch, but still fell a point short, 114-113.
On the latter game of a road back-to-back, Atlanta came out a little flat, but the Heat weren’t blowing down any doors either.

Both teams struggled defensively and shot well, but were deadlocked score-wise frequently throughout the night. The Hawks trailed by one at the end of one, and were tied with Miami at both halftime and to start the fourth.

The Heat came out (and stuck with) a “Trae Young stopper” defensive set, and it worked for the most part, giving the rook his worst game in quite some time, breaking his tremendous post-All-Star run. He finished with 14 points and 8 assists with 8 turnovers. But let’s not forget our rook posted a 49-point, 16-assist game just 3 days ago!

Offensively for Miami, it was D Wade turning back the clock, putting up a vintage performance in his final game against the Hawks. His biggest opponent scoring-wise was fellow vet Vince Carter.

Vince and Wade dueled like it was the mid-2000s in the 4th, both scoring a handful of buckets, with VC doing his damage beyond the arc. He finished with 21 points, all from beyond the three-point line. Wade scored a Miami-high 23 off the bench.

After falling behind by double digits with under 5 to go, the Hawks got back into it, cutting the lead to just 1 with 60 seconds left.

Great defense by Carter and Bembry gave the Hawks for a chance to tie, down by 3 with 9 seconds left. An interesting inbound play set up Bazemore for 2 free throws to cut it down to one. He did just that, but the Hawks were unable to foul the Heat, as the latter secured the one-point victory.

Box Score Notes:

• Despite winning more frequently, the Hawks just can’t seem to tie any together, winning twice in a row just once since December 29th.
• Dwyane Wade seemed to seek out Kevin Huerter and ask him for a jersey exchange. Cool moment for the rookie who wears #3 in honor of Wade.

It was a questionable decision to go for the two instead of the tie with 9 seconds left, but hindsight is, of course, always 20/20.

The loss drops the Hawks to 22-43 on the year, while the Heat stay in the playoff race, and avoid a four-game season sweep by Atlanta.

Hawks get tomorrow off and will be back in cozy State Farm Arena for a Wednesday tilt with the Spurs.