The Heat Held On For A Narrow Game 5 Victory To Eliminate The Hawks

Just hours before Game 5 between the Atlanta Hawks and the Miami Heat on Tuesday, word broke that Heat star Jimmy Butler would be unavailable to play due to a knee issue. His absence immediately changed the calculus for a Heat team aiming to close out the series in five games but, after a hard-fought battle, Miami was able to secure the win that earned them almost a week off. The Heat held on for a 97-94 win over the Hawks, eliminating Atlanta and providing a ticket to the ticket round for Miami.

Playing without Bogdan Bogdanovic, who was also a late scratch in the game, the Hawks needed help on the wing, and Kevin Huerter provided it in the early going. Huerter scored seven of the first nine points for Atlanta, giving the visitors an early lead.

Miami responded in kind, using a 12-2 run to take their first advantage on the scoreboard. Victor Oladipo, who started in place of Butler, scored eight points on his first four shots and gave the Heat a boost.

For the most part, however, the first half was a slog for both offenses. In the first quarter, Atlanta and Miami combined to shoot 1-of-15 from three-point range, and that kind of ugliness persisted for most of the second quarter as well. There was a notable stretch in which the Hawks made back-to-back threes, and that gave Atlanta its largest lead of six.

Nate McMillan’s team led 40-39 with less than three minutes to go in the first half, and all seemed to be solid for the Hawks. That ended with haste, though, and it began with a hideous sequence out of a timeout that featured back-to-back turnovers in the backcourt.

Things continued to spiral from there for Atlanta, as Miami racked up a 15-0 run in less than two minutes. The Heat finally were able to make a couple of jump shots along the way, and Miami rode that wave to a 12-point halftime lead despite an uneven offensive showing.

Just in time, the Hawks put together an 8-0 run to start the third quarter. De’Andre Hunter was a big factor offensively for Atlanta, with 15 points by the middle of the third quarter.

Miami did stabilize things midway through the third quarter, with Atlanta’s offense hemorrhaging. The Heat used a 7-0 run to reclaim a double-digit lead, and Atlanta scored only two points in more than seven minutes.

If anything, the Heat might have been kicking themselves late in the third quarter, as they took only an 11-point lead to the closing period. That became even more clear when the Hawks used a mini-spurt from Hunter and a 12-4 run to climb within 79-76 with more than eight minutes remaining.

Miami slowly built its lead back to relative comfort at 92-82 with fewer than five minutes remaining, but Hunter continued to cook for Atlanta. The third-year forward exposed Miami’s wing defense in the absence of Butler, scoring six points on three possessions to bring the Hawks back within 92-86 with 3:38 to go. The Heat continued to scuffle on offense as well, scoring only two points in the final 3:30 of the game and attempting to hold on for dear life.

With Miami leading by three points in the final seconds, the Hawks had one final chance to tie it and extend their season, but Atlanta failed to get a shot off in bizarre fashion.

Playing without their leader in Butler and another key piece in Lowry, the Heat certainly struggled at times on offense, shooting just 7-of-31 from three-point range and scoring less than 1.1 points per possession against a shaky Hawks defense. Miami did enough to escape, however, and Oladipo produced 23 points in an expanded role.

With that said, the story of the game, and the series, was Miami’s defense against the high-powered Hawks offense. Atlanta was never able to find a cure for Miami’s pressure, and the Heat flummoxed Trae Young from wire-to-wire in the five-game set. Young scored 11 points on 2-of-12 shooting in Game 5, and averaged only 15.4 points per game in the series. On the positive side for Atlanta in Game 5 was Hunter, who erupted for a playoff career-high 35 points and 11 rebounds.

The Heat will now face the winner of the first round matchup between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Toronto Raptors. That series will begin on Monday, May 2, with the top-seeded Heat boasting home-court advantage beginning in Game 1.