It was, as they say, just one of 82 games — or, in this lockout-shortened NBA season, one of 66.
But it felt like so much more than that for the Hawks.
“This by far has to be my worst defeat here as a Hawk,” center Al Horford said. “I didn’t feel like we wanted to win this game.”
Horford has experienced dispiriting postseason losses and blowout home defeats. But a 116-109 loss to Miami in triple overtime late Thursday was particularly deflating because it was the kind of effort that people who can’t embrace the Hawks cite to dismiss them.
Just three days after a stirring victory at Miami, the Hawks lost to a Heat team that played without injured superstars LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. All-Star forward Chris Bosh’s big game wasn’t unexpected, but the likes of marginal point guard Mario Chalmers and rookies Norris Cole and Terrel Harris also hurt the Hawks.
The Hawks, who had blown a 19-point lead two nights earlier at Chicago, wrongly believed they could coast to victory against Miami’s skeleton crew.
“There was a total, total mental letdown,” Hawks coach Larry Drew said. “I saw it in the first couple minutes of the game.”
A national TV audience watching on TNT saw the Heat’s lesser talent jump a Hawks team that includes All-Stars Joe Johnson and Horford. Hawks fans were chagrined to hear TNT commentators criticize their team’s fortitude all night — and then watched their poor effort give the doubters credence.
TNT’s Charles Barkley let the Hawks have it.
“I don’t think are tough enough mentally to have that killer instinct,” Barkley said on the air.
Later, during a commercial break, Barkley piled on.
“Man, I can’t stand to watch this Atlanta Hawks team play,” Barkley said in a video posted online. “They got nothing but a bunch of nice guys.”
From the start, the Hawks had none of the urgency and grit they showed at Miami and Chicago. Miami led 54-49 at halftime and 67-54 late in the third quarter.
In the final minute of regulation, Chalmers and Bosh both scored on barely contested drives to the basket, and the Hawks missed two free throws. The Hawks led 93-90 with 10 seconds to go, and Drew decided not to foul because he said he trusted his defense in spite of the earlier breakdowns.
Bosh shook free to sink a 3-pointer with 0.6 seconds left.
“Just total mental breakdowns from key players,” Drew said.
Miami ended the game by outscoring the Hawks 7-0 in the third overtime — just the 10th time in NBA history that a team failed to score in an overtime period. After the game, the Hawks sounded like a team on the verge of fraying.
It could have been different for the Hawks if they had made a few more free throws against Chicago and Miami. After missing 11 in the 76-74 loss at Chicago, the Hawks missed 15 against the Heat.
“You’ve got to step up and make them,” Johnson said. “I’m one of the biggest culprits.”
In the Hawks’ locker room before the team played Charlotte on Friday, there were no signs of the frustration and anger from the previous night. Players were in good spirits after Drew, in a team meeting, told them they had to learn from the past two losses and move on.
“With the amount of games we have in so little time, everybody around here has to create a short memory,” Hawks forward Josh Smith said. “Obviously we have to play with some type of sense of urgency. But we can’t let the past affect us.”
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