The Atlanta Hawks defeated the Miami Heat, 98-86, on Monday night at State Farm Arena. Just one day after losing to the Detroit Pistons, 143-148, Atlanta turned in arguably its best defensive performance of the season on the second night of a back-to-back. The Hawks did just enough offensively to escape with a victory. They dominated the points in the paint 58-38 and won the bench points battle 49-24.
Caris LeVert struggled with his shot in the first three frames but caught fire in the fourth quarter for 11 points and finished with 15. Terance Mann and Georges Niang scored 15 and 11 points, respectively. Clint Capela also totaled eight points and 11 boards in 19 minutes.
The game was tight throughout the first half until Atlanta went into halftime on a 14-7 run to take a 50-42 lead. I asked Head Coach Quin Snyder what led to the Hawks finding an offensive rhythm over this stretch.
“I don’t think we were doing anything that different. I think we got some stops and scored off our defense,” said Snyder.
The Hawks held the Heat to just 29% shooting in the first half, but they sent Miami to the charity stripe 12 times for 11 points, so the visitors were able to keep pace despite their rough shooting.
The Hawks started the second half with a 10-2 run to build a 13-point lead- their largest of the game. However, the Heat countered immediately with a 10-0 run with threes from Duncan Robinson and Kyle Anderson to cut their deficit to three. Atlanta did not lose the lead because Mann and Capela played well to round out the third frame with a 7-0 run to bring the lead back to 73-65. The Hawks committed five turnovers in the quarter, but Miami did not take full advantage of their miscues.
The Hawks were over-aggressive to start the final frame, putting the Heat in the bonus with 8:44 left on the game clock. Miami used this to its advantage, converting easy points at the line while its halfcourt offense struggled. Atlanta’s offense struggled mightily without Trae Young on the floor, but he played the final 15 minutes of this game. The Hawks held a 90-84 lead with just over three minutes left and closed on an 8-2 run inside the final minute to secure the victory.
Even though Young only scored 11 points, he got into the teeth of Miami’s defense all night and dished out 14 dimes. Dyson Daniels put on a defensive clinic. As the primary defender on Tyler Herro, he held Miami’s All-Star to 11 points on 4-19 shooting. Daniels finished with 10 points, 11 boards, and a whopping seven steals. Onyeka Okongwu put up 17 points and eight rebounds.
Andrew Wiggins led the Heat with 23 points and three blocks, while Bam Adebayo struggled for 14 points on 5-13 shooting. Kyle Anderson had 14 points off the bench.
These two squads will face off in a rematch on Wednesday at the Kaseya Center.
