MIAMI — The Heat had the clear advantage in talent with their All-Star trio of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh while the hobbled Hawks countered with tenacity and toughness.
Eventually Miami's star power trumped Atlanta's defensive grit, but just barely. The Heat held off the short-handed Hawks for an 89-86 victory Wednesday night.
The Hawks were down two injured stars and a couple of key reserves, but still pushed the defending Eastern Conference champions. The Hawks led by 10 points in third quarter and were up 80-77 with less than five minutes to go.
But the Hawks couldn’t hold on. Wade’s two free throws with 2.7 seconds left gave Miami an 89-86 lead, and Hawks guard Jannero Pargo missed a 3-point attempt at the final buzzer.
“No moral victory,” Hawks swingman Jerry Stackhouse said. “But I think that team is aware of us. We came down here early in the season [to win] and now we are competing with some main pieces out. I am pretty sure they are aware if we see them in the playoffs we are a formidable foe.”
The Heat (30-9) continued their chase of Chicago (33-8) in the East standings. The Hawks (23-16) fell a game behind fifth-place Indiana (23-14).
Atlanta had only 10 healthy players available and one of them, Erick Dampier, played just four minutes. Among those missing were stars Joe Johnson (knee) and Al Horford (pectoral) and reserves Willie Green (back) and Tracy McGrady (knee).
“I don’t fault our effort, not one bit,” Hawks coach Larry Drew said. “We played last night, we got in at 1:30 this morning and we come in and play against one of the hottest teams in the league. Our effort was there. They did a phenomenal job in fighting every possession. We had an opportunity and we kind of let it get away.”
The Heat led 77-71 and appeared poised to run away, but the Hawks kept resisting. Jeff Teague scored three consecutive baskets — a drive, a fast break started by Kirk Hinrich’s steal, and a jumper — and Josh Smith made a 3-pointer for an 80-77 Hawks lead with less than five minutes to play.
Miami surged ahead 83-80, and after the Hawks’ Zaza Pachulia missed one of two free-throw attempts with 52.4 seconds left, Bosh’s jumper pushed the lead to 85-81, and the Heat held on.
The Hawks were respectable defending James, who made several pull-up jumpers late on the way to 31 points. More than that, Atlanta its lamented 22 turnovers, many of them unforced, which Miami turned into 32 points.
“We fought our tails off,” said Smith, who scored a team-high 23 points. “We played extremely good on the defensive end. They hit some tough shots down the stretch and I think if we were a little bit more controlling of the basketball with not so many turnovers, we probably could have won.”
The Heat came back to win after the Hawks led 61-51 in the third quarter with a 10-0 run that started with a 3-pointer by Marvin Williams and ended with Hinrich’s 3-pointer. But the Hawks soon would fall apart amid a flurry of turnovers that the Heat turned into easy baskets.
The Hawks had four consecutive turnovers late in the third quarter, leading to dunks by Wade and Dexter Pittman, a James jump shot and a free throw by James. Suddenly, the Heat's fans roared and the Hawks appeared rattled.
It was the kind of quick tempo that Drew had hoped to avoid.
“I think the one thing that is important against them is you can’t get into a run-and-shoot contest with them, they will run you right out of the building,” Drew said before the game. “You have to be disciplined enough to play at the pace that is comfortable for you and play at a pace that will allow you to dictate the pace of the game.”
The Hawks couldn’t keep up in the end. Nor could they earn many free throws in spite of the physical play.
The Hawks didn’t shoot a free throw until Williams made two with 9:06 left in the third quarter; Miami had attempted 14 free throws by that point. The Heat ended up with 25 free-throw compared to Atlanta's nine.
“I’ve never seen a game where a team doesn’t shoot a free throw in a half,” Smith said.
As the score tightened in the third quarter the game grew more contentious.
Pachulia chased down James and wrapped him up to prevent a fast break chance. James took exception and stood toe-to-toe with Pachulia, and Pittman ran over and bumped Pachulia.
A few minutes later, Pachulia and James skirmished as they fought for a loose ball under Miami’s basket. Smith got involved, too, as each team tried to clear out bodies.
“We fell down, it was loose ball," Pachulia said. "I dove for the ball, he dove for the ball. I don’t know what happened. The ref called something.”
Pachulia was called for both personal and technical fouls. Mario Chalmers made the free throw for the technical, and James made one of two for a 68-65 lead. Pargo tied it with a 3-pointer to end the quarter.
