The Hawks dropped their second straight game, falling to Miami at home, 106-98. While the game was hotly contested, Atlanta struggled with consistency in every facet of the game. In addition to that, Miami was without players like, Jimmy Butler, Victor Oladipo, Omer Yurtseven, and Duncan Robinson, who were all out with various injuries.
The Hawks’ shooting as a team was once again abysmal shooting 39.8% from the field overall and just 27% from three. Miami’s physical defense caused problems all night for Trae Young, who went just 4-16 from the field and 1-8 from three, finishing with 22 points.
On a bright note, John Collins started the game with a bang, with a massive alley-oop from Trae Young. Both Collins and De’Andre Hunter had great bounce-back games, dropping 23 points and 18 points,
respectively.
Atlanta continued to get the ball into the paint in the first period, drawing fouls and getting easy buckets from kicking the ball to shooters and pushing the lead to 8 points. It was more of the same in the second, as Collins improved the lead to 11 with a turnaround jumper right before the half. It seemed Atlanta had the momentum to pull out a win, however, the second-half revealed some of the same underlying issues on this roster.
Atlanta shot an abysmal 1-9 from three in the third and allowed the Heat to outscore them by 13 points. The awful “shot-chucking” and complete lack of an offensive game plan ruined the Hawks in the final minutes of the game. Collins, who was hot all game, only took two shots in the fourth quarter, making both. Young was the only player to finish with a positive plus/minus in that quarter.
Atlanta looks to get back in the win column as they head up to Philly, Monday night, for the second-half of their back-to-back set. This one tips off from Philly at 7:00 p.m. eastern.
