Miami’s quest to stabilise their season was injected with a boost this morning with the Heat overcoming the Atlanta Hawks 106-98 on the road to win their third game in-a-row minus star forward Jimmy Butler.
Bam Adebayo led the way for the Heat finishing with a game-high 32 points on 13-of-20 shooting to go along with eight rebounds.
Caleb Martin added 20 points, nine rebounds and four assists on an efficient 8-of-12 from the field whilst Max Strus had 16 points on 4-of-10 from three.
Tyler Herro had a horrid night shooting but did manage to put up an 11-point, 11-rebound, 10-assist triple-double – the first of his NBA career.
Veteran centre Dewayne Dedmon was active off the bench putting up 13 points and six rebounds on 6-of-7 shooting in just 14 minutes whilst Kyle Lowry had nine points and nine assists but shot just 2-of-9 from the field and 1-of-7 from three.
With Butler, Duncan Robinson, and Victor Oladipo among the names inactive for the Heat, Erik Spoelstra was forced to run a nine-man rotation which included rookie Jamal Cain lasting just over 90 seconds.
The first half belonged to Atlanta with Trae Young, John Collins, and De’Andre Hunter all reaching double-digits prior to the break as the Hawks leapt out to an 11-point advantage late in the second.
A third-quarter Heat fightback spurred on by Adebayo’s 14 in the period saw the Hawks lead evaporate at the 8:27 mark which Miami held on to for the remainder of the contest.
Miami shot nine percentage points better from the floor whilst both teams struggled from long-distance.
Atlanta, who are bottom-five in the league in three-point percentage, have had their difficulties from behind the arc all season long on after finishing with the league’s second-highest mark a season ago.
Miami dominated the painted area – largely thanks to Adebayo – outscoring the Hawks by 24 in the area whilst also finishing plus-12 in fastbreak points.
Collins finished with 23 points and 14 boards for the Hawks whilst Young had 22 points, five rebounds and 14 assists but shot just 4-of-16 from the field and 1-of-8 from three.
Dejounte Murray, meanwhile, had just 13 points on 5-and-16 shooting.
Young and Murray – who have been Atlanta’s offensive engine all season – shot a combined 9-of-32 from the field and 3-of-16 from three.
The Heat improve 10-11 on the year whilst the Hawks are now 11-9.
Miami will be in Boston on Thursday whilst Atlanta are in Philadelphia tomorrow.
