What happened in the fourth quarter, Lowry injury update, takeaways from Heat’s Game 3 loss
Five takeaways from the top-seeded Miami Heat’s 111-110 loss to the eighth-seeded Atlanta Hawks on Friday night at State Farm Arena. The Heat still leads the best-of-7 first-round series 2-1, with Game 4 set for Sunday in Atlanta:
It looked like the Heat was on its way to a 3-0 series lead, and then the fourth quarter happened.
More specifically, the final nine minutes happened.
The Heat used a 21-0 run to take a 16-point lead in the third quarter and then found itself ahead by 14 with 9:06 to play.
That’s when the Hawks closed the game on a 31-16 run to complete the comeback and avoid a 3-0 series deficit that no NBA team has ever been able to overcome.
How did the Hawks do it? By finally having some success against the Heat’s usually elite defense.
Atlanta made 11 of its final 18 (61.1 percent) shots from the field, including 5 of 10 from three-point range. Hawks guard Trae Young scored 10 points on 3-of-5 shooting from the field and 3-of-3 shooting from the foul line, and Bogdan Bogdanovic scored nine points on 3-of-5 shooting on threes during that nine-minute stretch.
Included in that span was Young’s game-winner. With the Heat ahead by one point, Young hit a nine-foot running floater in transition to give the Hawks a one-point lead with 5.5 seconds to play.
“Young got a little bit of an angle and was able to hit a tough runner,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He makes that look easy. That’s not like the easiest shot going full speed and with the touch. It felt like it hit every part of the rim.”
Before the fourth quarter, Young had recorded only 14 points on 3-of-9 shooting from the field. But he ended up finishing with a team-high 24 points with the help of 10-of-12 shooting from the foul line in the win.
Bogdanovic finished with 18 points on 4-of-9 shooting from deep off the bench for the Hawks.
Meanwhile, the Heat’s offense was shaky going down the stretch. Miami shot just 6 of 18 (33.3 percent) from the field during the final nine minutes of the game.
Even after Young’s floater, the Heat had one final opportunity to escape with the win. But the Heat could not generate a clean look on its last possession, as Jimmy Butler settled for a contested fadeaway three that bounced off the front of the rim as the final buzzer sounded.
“Missed a shot. As simple as that,” Butler said of the final shot.
What was the plan on the final possession? “Get free, shoot it, make it,” Butler said. “I didn’t. I’ll make the next one.”
In the clutch on Friday, the Heat was outscored 13-9. A clutch game is defined as a game that has a margin of five points or fewer inside the final five minutes of the fourth quarter.
The Heat’s clutch offense ranked seventh-worst in the NBA in the regular season, while its clutch defense ranked fourth-best.
But it was very clearly Miami’s late-game defense that was to blame in Game 3. Atlanta recorded an exceptional clutch offensive rating of 162.5 points scored per 100 possessions on Friday.
“Just a lack of a defensive presence,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said of the fourth-quarter struggles. “I feel like that was the reason why we were up so big. We were getting into the ball, being physical and just taking away their easy gateways to get easy baskets. I feel like we let up a little bit.”
The loss was painful for the Heat, but losing starting point guard Kyle Lowry for an extended stretch would hurt even more.
Lowry exited Friday’s game with 1:59 left in the third quarter because of a left leg injury and did not return. Spoelstra described the injury as a hamstring issue.
“I do not know the severity of it. We’ll find out more tomorrow,” Spoelstra said late Friday night following Game 3.
Spoelstra said Lowry did not re-enter the contest because “the trainers told me that the best thing would be for him not to go into the game.”
Lowry, 36, was seen after the game walking to the team bus under his own power, but slowly and with a limp. He did not speak to reporters following the loss.
There is cautious optimism from those around Lowry that the hamstring injury is not serious.
Lowry produced six points on 2-of-7 shooting from the field, four rebounds and five assists in 23 minutes before leaving Friday’s game early.
Without Lowry, the Heat played reserve guard Gabe Vincent in his place for 6:23 of the fourth quarter. But Miami closed the game without a traditional point guard on the court, going with a lineup of Tyler Herro, Max Strus, Butler, P.J. Tucker and Adebayo for nearly the entire final six minutes of the fourth period.
If Lowry can’t play Sunday in Game 4, Vincent and Herro are options to start in his place.
But if Spoelstra chooses to keep the bench rotation intact, guard Victor Oladipo is another option to step into Lowry’s spot in the starting lineup. Oladipo has yet to play in the series.
The Heat had three players finish with at least 20 points, but still lost because of its fourth-quarter defensive struggles.
Herro recorded a team-high 24 points on 10-of-22 shooting from the field and 4-of-11 shooting on threes, seven rebounds, four assists and three turnovers in 34 minutes.
Butler finished with 20 points on 8-of-20 shooting from the field, 1-of-5 shooting on threes and 3-of-3 shooting from the foul line, 10 rebounds and eight assists in 41 minutes.
Strus ended the night with 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field, 5-of-10 shooting on threes and 1-of-3 shooting from the foul line in 29 minutes.
Adebayo hasn’t cracked the 20-point mark in any game during the series. He finished Game 3 with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field and 3-of-3 shooting from the foul line, 11 rebounds, five assists and three steals.
Adebayo has averaged 9.3 points on 6.7 shot attempts per game in the first three games of the series.
“Go watch film and figure it out,” Adebayo said when asked if he needs to be more aggressive on the offensive end.
The game did not tip off until nearly an hour after its originally scheduled start time.
Originally scheduled for 7 p.m., Friday’s game did not tip off until 7:55 p.m. because of a suspicious package found outside State Farm Arena.
According to the Hawks, the suspicious package was located outside Gate 2 of the arena. As a precaution, three gates were temporarily closed to fans as the Atlanta Police Department, K-9 units and arena security cleared the area and investigated the contents of the package.
The package was not found to be explosive and it was safely removed by the Atlanta Bomb Squad.
Both teams did not take the court for pregame warmups until a few minutes after 7:30 p.m.
The Heat is still in good position to advance to the second round of the playoffs for just the second time in the last six seasons.
That’s because the Heat did hold a 2-0 series lead before dropping Game 3.
The Heat owns a perfect 17-0 all-time record in playoff series that it has taken a 2-0 lead in and there have only been 25 instances in NBA history of a team rallying from a 2-0 hole in a best-of-7 series.
But Game 4 on Sunday at 7 p.m. at State Farm Arena (TNT, Bally Sports Sun) will be important. If the Heat can win that one to take a 3-1 lead, this is worth noting: There have only been 13 instances in NBA history of a team coming back from a 3-1 deficit to win a best-of-7 playoff series.
One thing is for sure, there is now guaranteed to be a Game 5 on Tuesday in Miami (7 p.m., NBA TV and Bally Sports Sun).
The only other time the Heat made it past the first round of the playoffs in the last six seasons was in 2020, when it made a run to the NBA Finals before falling to the Los Angeles Lakers in the championship series in the Walt Disney World bubble.
This story was originally published April 23, 2022 at 12:57 AM.
