The Atlanta Hawks led this game for a total of 52 seconds when they jumped out to a 3-0 lead. It was all down hill from their as the Miami Heat dominated the eighth-seeded Hawks for essentially 48 minutes. Miami’s fourth-overall defense proved to be a brick wall for Atlanta’s second-ranked offense, as they coasted to a 115-91 victory.
For Hawks fandom, there is not much to say about this one, or at least anything good. Trae Young turned in the worst playoff performance of his young career, finishing with a career playoff-low of 8 points, while shooting a dismal 1-of-12 from the field and going 0-for-7 from beyond the arc. Young never got going against the Miami defense, who switched defenders constantly on Young in what looked to be some sort of box-in-one or 1-2-2 zone. This was Young’s first Game 1 loss in his playoff career, he was previously 3-0 in such games.
John Collins did make his return-debut off the Atlanta bench. It was his first action in over a month and he was as effective as one would imagine. He played 21 minutes and finished with 10 points and 4 rebounds. Bogdan Bogdanovic, who has maybe been the Hawks’ second best player since the end of February, had maybe his worst game as a member of the team. Playing his normal sixth-man role, ‘Bogi’ went 0-of-8 from the field and missed all four of his three-point attempts. The Hawks as a whole only shot 10-of-36 from three, a total of 27.8%. Miami shot 18-of-38 from three, proving their status as the league’s number one three-point attack.
Miami was spearheaded by the lights-out shooting of Duncan Robinson. Robinson shot a lethal 8-of-9 from three on his way to a game-high 27 points. Jimmy Butler chipped in with 21 points and was one of the primary defenders on Young. Miami also had an impressive 35 assists compared to 16 from Atlanta. Miami’s largest lead of the afternoon was 32 points.
Now for Hawks fans, the silver-lining is that this is a series, not a one-and-done game. Atlanta still can reach their primary objective by winning Game 2 and splitting in Miami. It is also very unlikely that Young and Bogdanovic will combine to go 0-of-12 from three again. The absence of Clint Capela does look to be a major concern for this series, but Atlanta will need to forget about their issues and come out with some energy for Game 2 or risk coming back to Atlanta down 0-2.
Tip-off for Game 2 is from Miami’s FTX Arena at 7:30 p.m. eastern on Tuesday.
