Hawks kick off homestand on wrong foot, fall to Heat
Chants of “Let’s go Heat” rained down on the emptying seats at State Farm Arena Friday. Heat big man Bam Adebayo slammed down a thunderous dunk and iced the game with the Heat up 27 points.
The Hawks fell to the Heat 128-97 in a game that added a little more cement to their spot at the bottom of the Eastern Conference Play-In tournament.
On the second night of back-to-back games, the Hawks lost focus, allowing the Heat to pick them apart in the second half. So, the Heat just kept racking up the score.
Quick stats: Jalen Johnson had 16 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists. Onyeka Okongwu had 22 points, while Nickeil Alexander-Walker and CJ McCollum each chipped in 20 points.
Key moment
The Hawks struggled to stop multiple Heat runs in the second half, but they’d get enough to get the game back within nine.
That momentum ran out in the last five minutes of the third quarter as the Hawks allowed Heat forward Jaime Jaquez to get to the basket for a pair of buckets that kicked off a 13-5 run.
The Heat never let up after that. They pushed their lead to 20, then to 23, then to 25 before Heat coach Erik Spoelstra pulled his starters up 27 points with 3:11 to play.
Highlight play
Alexander-Walker has the gift of ambidexterity. This season, he has notched a couple of highlight buzzer-beater plays from distance.
He knocked down a one-legged lefty 3 in Oklahoma City. He drained another lefty 3 at the shot clock buzzer to stop a Celtics run in Boston.
He added another to his growing highlight reel tonight, pulling up on a fastbreak to sink a 3 at the end of the third quarter.
What they said
“I don’t really care for no triple-double. I played terrible tonight, just my opinion. I just got to be better, and I just got to be better for my teammates. But we have another chance on Sunday to regroup and hopefully string together some wins. We’re home for quite a long stretch. So chances are right in front of us, we just got to go out there and get it.” -- Johnson on his triple-double Friday.
“I would like to go to sleep before 3 am last night, but they beat us. It is what it is. They came out. They played better as they came out. They executed better than us. They got points in transition. They got threes, they got rim pressure right to back or not. They did enough.” -- McCollum on what he thought the catalyst for the Hawks’ issues on Friday.
Up next
The Hawks host the Nets in a Sunday matinee meeting at State Farm Arena.
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