Takeaways: Heat offense explodes for 131 points in much-needed bounce-back win over Hawks
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 131-109 win over the Atlanta Hawks (27-32) on Wednesday night at Kaseya Center to open a four-game homestand. The Heat (27-30) continues the homestand on Friday against the Indiana Pacers:
After turning in its worst offensive performance of the season in Monday’s loss to the Hawks in Atlanta, the Heat turned in one of its best offensive performances of the season to earn a much-needed bounce-back win over the Hawks on Wednesday in Miami.
The Heat totaled just 86 points on a season-worst 32.1 percent shooting from the field and a season-worst 7-of-40 (17.5 percent) shooting from three-point range in Monday’s 98-86 road loss to the Hawks. As a result, the Heat recorded its worst single-game offensive rating of the season at 88.7 points scored per 100 possessions.
But a few nights after not making many shots, the Heat didn’t miss many shots.
In Wednesday’s home win over the Hawks, the Heat exploded for 131 points on a season-best 59.2 percent shooting from the field and a season-best 54.8 percent shooting (23 of 42) from behind the arc on its way to the 22-point victory. It marked the Heat’s first double-digit victory since a 21-point win over the San Antonio Spurs on Jan. 19.
“It’s not going to turn out that way all the time, where we’ll make 20 [threes],” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “But you want to generate open looks and those were really good looks. Offensively, the ball was really moving. It was a lot of fun for the guys, it was fun for the fans.”
The 131 points are the second-most the Heat has scored in a game this season, only behind a 134-point display in a Dec. 4 win over the Los Angeles Lakers.
The 23 made threes are the second-most the Heat has made in a game this season and in franchise history. The Heat tied a franchise record with 24 three-point makes in that Dec. 4 victory over the Lakers earlier this season.
In the process, the Heat recorded its second-best single-game offensive rating of the season with 139.4 points per 100 possessions on Wednesday.
All of this led to a win that was very much needed, as the Heat had dropped six of its previous seven games.
“I commend the group,” Spoelstra said.
Despite the Heat’s offensive eruption, it was a close game until the second half. The Hawks actually led by five points with 10:01 left in the third quarter behind their own hot shooting.
But the Heat broke the game open by closing the third quarter on a big 39-20 run to enter the fourth quarter with a 14-point advantage. Miami scored 42 efficient points on 12-of-18 (66.7 percent) shooting from the field, 6-of-11 (54.5 percent) shooting on threes and 12-of-13 (92.3 percent) shooting from the foul line in the third period to pull away from Atlanta.
This time, the Heat didn’t blow its big lead. Instead, the Heat extended its lead to as large as 22 points in the fourth quarter.
The Heat’s defense grew stronger as the game went on, too, limiting the Hawks to 44 second-half points on 41.5 percent shooting from the field and 4-of-16 (25 percent) shooting on threes. Miami relied on its press-zone defense for a large chunk of the game.
“In the second half, our defense really turned up,” Spoelstra said. “I think that ended up being the difference. We mentioned at halftime, whoever was going to take control of this thing defensively would have the best chance to win.”
Seven Heat players finished with double-digit points.
Duncan Robinson scored 24 points on 6-of-13 shooting on threes.
Tyler Herro recorded 24 points and 10 assists.
Bam Adebayo added 20 points, nine rebounds and three assists.
Davion Mitchell got hot, totaling 20 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the field and 5-of-5 shooting on threes.
Andrew Wiggins contributed 15 points and six assists.
Haywood Highsmith finished with 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting from three-point range, seven rebounds, five assists and one steal.
Kel’el Ware ended the night with 12 points and eight rebounds.
“Anytime we can get a win right now, we’re happy,” Herro said. “By one point, half a point, 30 points, whatever it is, we’ll take the win and we just want to try to build off this.”
Adebayo played through a calf injury and made a positive impact.
Adebayo was listed as questionable before Wednesday’s game because of a right calf contusion. He wasn’t sure whether he would play until just before tipoff after testing his injured calf during his usual pregame warm up.
Not only did Adebayo score 20 points and grab nine rebounds, but he also finished the win with an impressive plus/minus of plus 16.
“Bam was banged up coming into this game,” Spoelstra said. “It just shows you how much he wants this for this group. He put himself out there and then was a force of nature out there with his physicality and his efforts and his voice, his spirit, all of that.”
Adebayo has still only missed two games so far this season — a Jan. 13 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers because of a lower back contusion and a Feb. 13 loss to the Dallas Mavericks because of a left knee contusion.
The only players the Heat was without on Wednesday were Josh Christopher (G League), Keshad Johnson (G League), Nikola Jovic (broken right hand), Dru Smith (Achilles surgery) and Isaiah Stevens (G League).
The Hawks were missing Kobe Bufkin (right shoulder surgery), Jalen Johnson (left shoulder surgery), Vit Krejci (lumbar fracture), Larry Nance Jr. (right medial femoral condyle fracture) and Daeqwon Plowden (G League) against the Heat.
The Heat stuck with the same starting lineup despite the group’s recent shaky results.
The Heat opened Wednesday’s contest with its new post-trade preferred starting lineup of Mitchell, Herro, Wiggins, Adebayo and Ware for the fourth straight game and fifth game overall.
During this lineup’s first four starts together, it was outscored by 9.8 points per 100 possessions over 55 minutes.
But the Heat’s starters generated positive results on Wednesday, outscoring the Hawks by two points in 13 minutes together.
With the win, the Heat improved to 2-3 when using this starting lineup.
After falling out of the Heat’s rotation for the last two weeks, Highsmith was back in the mix on Wednesday and made the most of his opportunity.
Highsmith had appeared in 46 straight games before receiving five DNP-CDs (did not play, coach’s decision) in the last six contests. In fact, Highsmith had not played in four straight games before logging extended minutes off the Heat’s bench on Wednesday against the Hawks.
Highsmith showed no signs of rust, contributing 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting from three-point range, seven rebounds (four offensive rebounds), five assists and one steal in 27 minutes. The Heat outscored the Hawks by 31 points with Highsmith on the court.
“You felt his energy and he earned all those minutes,” Spoelstra said of Highsmith. “It’s what we say all the time, and I couldn’t take him out of the game.”
Highsmith added: “It was definitely gratifying to get the opportunity and just provide a spark, provide a plus.”
Highsmith was part of a five-man Heat bench rotation on Wednesday that also included Robinson, Kyle Anderson, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Alec Burks.
That left Terry Rozier, Pelle Larsson and Kevin Love out of the Heat’s rotation on Wednesday despite all of them being available to play. However, Larsson did play the final 43 seconds of the blowout victory.
Rozier, who has struggled to make shots this season, has received his first two DNP-CDs of the season in the last two games.
More home games are ahead for the Heat, which still appears to be headed for the NBA’s play-in tournament.
Wednesday marked the start of a 10-game stretch that includes nine games at Kaseya Center. It also marked the start of a 17-game span that includes 14 games in Miami.
“It’s set up to have a really fun March run here,” Spoelstra said.
The Heat started this stretch off with a win on Wednesday, moving into eighth place in the Eastern Conference standings and just one-half game behind the seventh-place Orlando Magic. But it still seems like the Heat is on track to be in the play-in tournament for the third straight season.
With the NBA’s play-in tourney featuring the seventh-through-10th-place teams competing for the final two playoff seeds in each conference, the eighth-place Heat sits five games behind the sixth-place Detroit Pistons for the final playoff spot in the East that doesn’t require having to go through play-in. The Pistons defeated the Boston Celtics on Wednesday for their eighth straight win.
According to Basketball Reference’s playoff probabilities report, the Heat entered Wednesday with just an 11 percent chance of finishing with a top-six seed in the East to make the playoffs without needing to take part in the play-in tournament. Basketball Reference’s modeling has the Heat’s most likely regular-season finish listed at 31.3 percent for ninth place in the East.
As for the Heat dropping further in the East standings and completely falling out of the play-in tournament/playoff contention, that’s unlikely with Basketball Reference’s playoff probabilities report giving less than a 1 percent chance of that scenario. The Heat is now one game ahead of the ninth-place Hawks, five games ahead of the 10th-place Chicago Bulls and 6.5 games ahead of the 11th-place Brooklyn Nets.
This story was originally published February 26, 2025 at 9:55 PM.
