Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Hawks Neuter Heat in Play-In Matchup

The Heat held a lead fewer than two minutes. The offense snapped, the guys couldn’t guard by themselves, and Atlanta continued to score on second attempts. At one point in the first half, the deficit Miami found itself in was so degrading that team captain Udonis Haslem was compelled to give a fiery speech to inspire the team during a stoppage. He’d later bowed in disgust as the point differential ballooned in the guests’ favor.

The Hosts were overhelping on the Hawk’s intrusions into the lane, exposing the perimeter. Trae Young tallied five dimes and sullied the Heat’s drops coverage with a pair of floaters to start.

Off Atlanta’s bench, Onyeka Okongwu infiltrated the paint three times for six of its 15 reserve points to Miami’s nine in the first quarter.

The harbinger of gloom was Jimmy Butler’s four missed shots at point-blank range. He managed to log 10 points but on 33% of his tries early.

Bam Adebayo had a donut on the stat sheet until the second quarter. He missed both first-period attempts, but more problematic was that playmakers weren’t looking for him. In one instance, after setting a screen that got Tyler Herro into the paint for a finish, Adebayo stood open on the baseline but with his hands at his side. He was uncovered but not calling for the ball. That might explain a lot.

Butler’s inefficiency trickled down to all but one of his teammates; the 37-year-old with over 38,000 minutes recorded, Kyle Lowry.

Lowry dashed into the lane twice, scoring with a pivot past De’Andre Hunter, plus a reverse layup over Okongwu. Without the quick burst of production provided by #7, Miami likely wouldn’t have broke 20 points to start the match. By halftime, he was the team’s leading scorer with 19 points on six of eight shots.

Running downhill in transition, vintage Lowry spun past Saddiq Bey for a layup. With the 6 ’11 Clint Capela switched on him up top, Kyle canned a step-back jumper from 28 feet out.

At the intermission, the Heat was down 50-65 and only making 37.5% of its attempts. Fortunately for Miami, Butler, and Herro kept the squad on life support in the third quarter. JB was freed on a Gabe Vincent backscreen that opened the baseline for a slam; then he hit a fadeaway jumper over Dejounte Murray and finally a close-range shot when he rolled to the rim after the pick.

Herro dropped a handful of buckets in the third on eight attempts for 11 points. On multiple tries, Atlanta could not stop #14 when driving left after the screen. He used a human shield for space on three scores; the others were a step-back jumper over Young in the post and a lay-in off a cut contested by John Collins.

When the Heat made runs to cut the deficit to single digits, the Hawks countered with body blows of its own. Early in the third period, the hosts erased 10 points off Atlanta’s lead. But the visitors next went on a 20-12 run to extend the advantage back to 13 to start the fourth quarter.

With 12 minutes left in a pre-elimination game that gave direct playoff entry to the winner, Miami had already allowed Atlanta to recover 15 offensive rebounds creating 13 second-chance points.

Lowry and Caleb Martin were the only reserves coach Erik Spoelstra used in the final stretch. With the season on the line, #7 converted four out of five triples and blew past Young on the wing for a three-foot shot. Martin contributed just a rebound and an assist in 11 fourth-quarter minutes.

The Heat’s 2-3 zone and man-to-man coverage left the glass unattended. The Hawks added seven offensive rebounds to its output, pushing the total to 22 for 26 second-chance points.

Atlanta invited Miami back into the game with 10 missed free throws through 36 minutes, but the Heat said thanks but no thanks by losing nearly all of the 50-50 balls.

At the postgame presser, Spo said his team crawled back into the match, but the story was the second chance points given up.

“I thought we defended fairly well, particularly in the last five minutes of the second quarter on through the second half,” Spo said. “We just were not able to come up with those finishing rebounds. It was like a highlight film gone bad of either missed block outs, bobbled balls, tipped balls, or [Atlanta] there, and they were able to come up with the rebound.”

Miami is a solid defensive rebounding team, but after Spo’s group put on one of its most embarrassing performances of the season, he wouldn’t identify what caused the slippage. Like a good soldier, he said they’d watch the film on it.

And just like that, the Heat arrived at DEFCON 4. Its next rival will be determined with the winner of Chicago’s visit to Toronto Wednesday. Each of those squads presents issues for the Heat. The Bulls have two point-of-attack incinerators, and the Raptors have the length to make a duel uglier than what Miami suffered at home Tuesday by clogging the lane.

The level of concern for the Heat shouldn’t change based on the outcome Wednesday. It’s difficult to trust any unit that needs to get humbled before getting its act together, and Miami has looked like a team ready to punch its time card for weeks.

Over a decade of watching the NBA has taught me that when a group gets shamed, it usually responds with a stronger showing. But what is there left to play for? Pride or eighth place? That’s a tough sell. The Heat lost the game it needed as it would have secured a preferred matchup with the Boston Celtics in round one instead of seeing the Milwaukee Bucks, who Miami has few counters for if they win Friday.

This Just In: An APB has been issued to locate Adebayo’s heart. A search party is also being assembled to find Max Strus’ jump shot after shock therapy was opposed.

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