Takeaways from Heat’s Game 1 win over Hawks behind familiar formula of defense and threes
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A blowout win for the Miami Heat
The Miami Heat beat the Atlanta Hawks 115-91 in Game 1 of the NBA Playoffs on Sunday at FTX Arena.
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Takeaways from Heat’s Game 1 win over Hawks behind familiar formula of defense and threes
Five takeaways from the top-seeded Miami Heat’s 115-91 blowout win over the eighth-seeded Atlanta Hawks to open the playoffs on Sunday afternoon at FTX Arena. The Heat leads the best-of-7 first-round series 1-0, with Game 2 set for Tuesday in Miami:
The key to slowing the Hawks’ quality offense is to slow superstar guard Trae Young. Mission accomplished in Game 1.
The Heat’s defense executed its game plan to perfection against Young, who finished with a season-low eight points on 1-of-12 shooting from the field and 0-of-7 shooting on threes and four assists in 28 minutes. That’s well below Young’s regular-season averages of 28.4 points and 9.7 assists per game, and it marked just the third time in his NBA career that he did not make more than one shot in a game.
As expected, the Heat threw a wave of different defenders and coverages at Young.
Kyle Lowry started the game on Young, but all five players in the Heat’s starting lineup had already spent time defending Young just a few minutes into the game because of its switching defensive style.
Then the Heat unleashed reserve guard Gabe Vincent on Young during various stretches. Vincent picked Young up full court and was used to pressure him whenever possible
“We’ve seen that all season long, switching. That’s the defense they play,” Hawks coach Nate McMillan said of the Heat. “It’s not something we didn’t expect or didn’t anticipate. That’s their defense.”
The Heat bothered Young from the start, limiting him to just eight points on 1-of-9 shooting from the field and 0-of-6 shooting on threes in the first half.
Young was held scoreless on 0-of-3 shooting in the third quarter and did not play in the fourth quarter because of the lopsided score.
As a result, the Hawks’ usually elite offense was bad on Sunday. Atlanta, which finished the regular season with the NBA’s second-best offensive rating, shot just 38.7 percent from the field and 10-of-36 (27.8 percent) from three-point range while committing 18 turnovers.
The Heat has now limited the Hawks to their two worst single-game offensive ratings of the season: 91 points per 100 possessions on Jan. 12 during the regular season and 93.8 points per 100 possessions in Game 1 on Sunday.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra downplayed Sunday’s defensive dominance over Young and the Hawks, noting Atlanta’s quick turnaround between Friday night’s play-in win to clinch the eighth playoff seed and Sunday afternoon’s Game 1.
“To be fair, look, that is a quick turnaround,” Spoelstra said. “To have a very emotional game like that on Friday night and then all of a sudden you have a 1 p.m. game on Sunday. We will take it. But that is something.”
Nearly all of Young’s jumpers were contested and he was met by swarming help defenders every time he stepped into the paint.
The Hawks fell to 5-10 this season, including the regular season and playoffs, when Young scores fewer than 20 points.
“It’s always all hands on deck,” said Heat star Jimmy Butler, who spent extended stretches defending Young. “I think that K-Low gives him a different look, so do I, so does [P.J. Tucker], so does [Bam Adebayo]. We all know he’s a hell of a player and he missed a lot of shots that he normally makes tonight, so we did a good job of making him do that.”
Atlanta was without starting center Clint Capela in Game 1 because of a hyperextended knee and there’s no timetable for his return. But Hawks forward John Collins returned from foot and finger injuries to play in his first game since March 11, finishing with 10 points and four rebounds in 21 minutes on Sunday.
On the other end of the court, the Heat executed another important part of its winning formula: Make a high percentage of its threes.
The Heat, which closed the regular season with the NBA’s top team three-point percentage, shot 18 of 38 (47.4 percent) on threes in Game 1.
Duncan Robinson led the charge with 27 points on 8-of-9 shooting from deep. His eight threes set a new Heat record for threes made in a playoff game, surpassing the previous mark of seven threes that he shared with Mike Miller and Damon Jones.
Tucker, who shot just 24.2 percent on threes after the All-Star break, also played a big part in the Heat’s three-point barrage. He finished with 16 points on 4-of-4 shooting from deep, marking the first time he has hit at least four threes in a game since shooting 4 of 6 from deep in a Jan. 26 win over the New York Knicks.
The Heat improved to 30-2 this season when shooting 40 percent or better from three-point range.
The Heat’s offense continues to have success against the Hawks’ subpar defense.
In the teams’ four regular-season matchups, the Heat shot 50.9 percent from the field and 39.7 percent on threes. Miami scored at a rate of 119.5 points per 100 possessions against Atlanta in those games, which would have been the NBA’s best offensive rating among teams in the regular season.
On Sunday, the Heat again scored at an elite rate of 118.6 points per 100 possessions. Miami also shot 52.4 percent from the field in Game 1.
Butler was solid with 21 points on 9-of-15 shooting, six rebounds and four assists. Lowry contributed 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting, four rebounds and nine assists.
The Hawks’ poor offensive performance was uncharacteristic because it has been among the league’s best on that end. But Atlanta’s rough defensive outing wasn’t as surprising because it closed the regular season with the NBA’s fifth-worst defense.
The catalyst behind the Heat’s dominant offensive performance, Robinson, has settled into his new reserve role.
Including Sunday’s record-setting day, Robinson has shot 50.9 percent from three-point range since being moved to a bench role in late March.
But he has actually shot the ball well for months, making 40 percent of his threes since the start of December.
While Robinson’s job is to make threes and space the floor whether he’s starting or not, it’s impressive that the move to the bench hasn’t seemed to affect him much.
This is the first time Robinson has played consistently off the bench in three seasons, as he started 68 of his 73 regular-season appearances in 2019-20, all 72 of his regular-season appearances last season and 67 games this season before the change.
“This season, I’ve learned a lot and had a lot of different experiences,” Robinson said. “The beautiful thing about this time of year is that you have to just lock in on what’s in front of you. Everything that was is in the past and it’s whatever I can do to help us win. Whatever that looks like, I’m willing to buy into it and I am buying into it.”
When asked what’s different about coming off the bench, Robinson said he feels “like I’m less prepared for” and “you can always have those first couple of possessions where maybe they’re not exactly matched up in terms of who’s guarding who so I try to take advantage of that when I can.”
The Heat improved to 9-1 this season when Robinson makes more than five threes in a game.
“It’s one of the things that I really disliked about making that decision because I knew on the outside, people would be jumping to a bunch of different conclusions,” Spoelstra said of moving Robinson to the bench. “In my mind, Duncan was still going to be a major factor.”
Robinson was on Sunday.
The Heat stuck with the same rotation in Game 1 that it switched to in the final weeks of the regular season.
As expected, Miami opened with a starting lineup of Lowry, Max Strus, Butler, Tucker and Adebayo.
The Heat then used Tyler Herro, Dewayne Dedmon, Robinson and Vincent off the bench to complete its nine-man rotation.
This is the same rotation the Heat used over the final two weeks of the regular season to win six of the seven games leading into the playoffs. The only game Miami dropped during that stretch was the regular-season finale, when Adebayo, Butler, Herro, Lowry and others were held out with the East’s top seed already clinched.
The fact that the Heat went with the same group that closed the regular season wasn’t a big surprise. Miami won a bunch of games with it over the last few weeks and that alignment has resulted in more efficient offense with the Heat’s best shooters — Lowry, Strus, Tucker, Herro, Robinson and Vincent — all included.
But it’s at least noteworthy that Caleb Martin and Victor Oladipo were not part of Sunday’s rotation. Martin spent more time as Young’s primary defender than any other Heat player in the regular season and Oladipo was very impressive in last week’s regular-season finale with 40 points.
“This is the way we went tonight,” Spoelstra said of leaving Martin out of the rotation on Sunday. “But look, we’re so far past the nine-man rotation. That’s what it was tonight. It’s all hands on deck. Whatever is required. Caleb is fully on our minds at any time. That’s just the way it played out tonight. But he’s one of our most important players. He’ll have an impact at some point.”
The Heat cruised to the blowout win despite off shooting games for Adebayo and Herro.
Adebayo finished with six points on 1-of-5 shooting, six rebounds, five assists and four turnovers. But he made an impact with his usual all-world defense, as the Heat allowed just 73.2 points per 100 possessions with Adebayo on the court in Game 1 compared to 122 points per 100 possessions in the 20 minutes he spent on the bench.
“Who gives a [expletive] about his scoring? Bam is an ultimate winner,” Spoelstra said. “A lot of what you guys are probably going to write about what we can do defensively, he’s the one that’s driving it.”
Herro ended the day with six points on 3-of-11 shooting and five turnovers, but managed to record five rebounds, five assists and two steals.
The cold shooting from Adebayo and Herro didn’t matter because the rest of the Heat’s roster combined to shoot 59.1 percent from the field and 52.9 percent on threes. It also didn’t hurt that Young turned in one of his worst offensive performances of the season for the Hawks.
This story was originally published April 17, 2022 at 5:12 PM.
