The Hawks return to the playoffs after their 116-105 win over the Heat in the first game of the play-in Tuesday. It comes off a gritty performance from the Hawks on offense, but more important on defense.
Throughout the regular season, the Hawks allowed the second-most points in the paint. On average, they gave up 54.7 points there in 82 games. Only the Spurs gave up more, with 56.7 points in the paint per game.
But on Tuesday, the Hawks looked to shut down the Heat or at the very least hold them to their average of 46.4 points inside the paint. The Hawks did just that, making the Heat work on nearly every single possession.
For example, they didn’t back down when Heat big man Bam Adebayo, who scored 12 points in 41 minutes, looked to attack the rim in the fourth quarter. After holding Adebayo to 3-of-9 shooting from the floor through the first three quarters, Hawks center Onyeka Okongwu met him at the rim with both arms up.
Okongwu denied Adebayo’s attempt at the basket and snatched the ball from him as he fell to the floor. Officials ended up ruling it a jump ball, and Okongwu got the ball back into the Hawks’ hands after winning the tip.
In addition to limiting Adebayo, the Hawks knew they also would have to slow Jimmy Butler as he tried to drive to the basket for a finger-roll layup. The Hawks fought through screens to finish defensive possessions. They matched the Heat’s physicality early, getting into the bodies of the Heat to disrupt their handles and force them off their spots.
In the first quarter alone, the Hawks gave up just nine field goals on 24 attempts.
Despite runs from the Heat toward the end of the second quarter and throughout the second half, the Hawks never relented for long. This season, the Hawks had a habit of giving up double-digit leads and folding once their control evaporated.
The Hawks did not fold Tuesday, even as Miami got the game within five points twice in the third quarter. Instead, the Hawks channeled energy from their second unit, who got the Hawks’ lead back to double figures.
“They did a great job of game planning,” Heat guard Kyle Lowry said after Tuesday’s game. “I think that’s what they’ve been doing, but they’ve been doing it the last month since Quin (Snyder) has been the coach. They’ve been crashing the boards.
“I mean think about it. They got Clint Capela, John Collins, you know, Okongwu, Saddiq Bey. They got they got big guys, and honestly it was like the ball was bouncing right to them, but at the same time they were double-crashing and triple-crashing, and it was tough to be out there and not being, you know, 6-9 to try to grab a little bit more rebound.”
The Hawks ended up grabbing a season-high 22 offensive rebounds to bolster their season-high 63 total rebounds. Their performance on the offensive glass netted them 26 second-chance points, and that came from playing through every possession by constantly moving.
Early in the fourth quarter, Hawks sophomore forward Jalen Johnson utilized a clear lane to the rim to slam down a one-handed put-back. Five minutes later, Bogdan Bogdanovic cut to the basket for a dunk. That came after Capela grabbed an offensive rebound and found him before falling out of bounds.
Another three minutes later Collins would deliver a bounce pass to Bey while falling out of bounds after grabbing an offensive board. Collins put just enough oomph on the bounce to give Bey enough time to jam the ball and force the Heat to take a timeout.
“Well, we’ve got some guys, they like to do it,” Snyder said of the Hawks’ offensive rebounding. “Something that’s important to our team, when you have strengths that you’ve got, some guys that feel like they can do that. And I thought we shot, we didn’t hesitate. So a lot of our catch-and-shoot 3′s are shots that you have a higher probability of rebounding, but I think our guys played hard.”
The Hawks will have to continue finding ways to outscrap their opponent as they ready to face the No. 2-seed Celtics in the first round of the playoffs. The Celtics have a versatile and deep team that can score from multiple areas on the floor.
On top of that, they ended the regular season averaging 35.6 defensive rebounds per game, which was good for third in the NBA.
The Hawks have a couple of days to figure out how they will attack that, though. They don’t face the Celtics until 3:30 p.m. Saturday in Boston.
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