The Atlanta Hawks are in the midst of a three-game road trip with each of the three matchups coming against quality opponents. Following a loss to the Houston Rockets on Tuesday, the Hawks visited the Miami Heat for the fourth and final matchup between the Southeast Division rivals this season. Atlanta held the lead for the majority of the first half but, after a massive run by Miami in the middle of the game, the Hawks succumbed by a final score of 122-112 for a second straight defeat.
Atlanta led by an 18-4 margin to begin the game, establishing a quick tempo and making perimeter shot attempts to grab the lead. At the same time, Miami had a relatively cold start, making only two of nine shots from 3-point distance in the opening period. That began to flip in the second quarter and, while the Hawks led by seven points with less than four minutes remaining before halftime, Miami pounced.
The Heat scored the final 12 points of the first half to secure a five-point lead at the break and, coming out of the break, Miami scored the first seven points of the third quarter. As such, Miami had a 19-0 run in relatively short order, and the Heat were not done from there. In the end, the Heat had a 31-3 overall run that turned a seven-point Hawks lead into a 21-point deficit. To their credit, the Hawks managed to fight back, climbing within only a five-point hole in the final minutes, but the damage was done and Atlanta didn't have quite enough to steal the game.
The Atlanta Hawks defense fell apart when they needed it most
Far and away the biggest story of the night was Atlanta's inability to secure defensive stops after the opening period. Miami scored more than 1.25 points per possession in the game, including well over 1.3 points per possession in the final three quarters. Atlanta's defense certainly was not pristine, but Miami also connected on a blistering 54.5 percent of its 3-point offerings, including 16-24 in the final 36 minutes.
It almost goes without saying that, when a team shoots like that from beyond the arc, the opponent is probably in trouble, and that happened here. As always, there is a degree of variance with 3-point shooting, and while the Hawks could have defended better in this game, 3-point shooting numbers like this lead one to simply tip a cap to Miam's shotmaking.
For example, the Hawks allowed only 16 "wide open" 3-point attempts to the Heat on Thursday, per NBA.com tracking data. Only one team (Orlando) in the NBA allows fewer than 16 "wide open" attempts on a per-game basis this season, so it was not as if the Hawks were simply breaking down and allowing the Heat to take any shot they wanted to from beyond the arc. The trouble was that Miami converted 11 of their 16 "wide open" attempts, connecting at a 68.8 percent clip and, for context, the team allowing the highest shooting percentage on "wide open" 3-point attempts this season is the Sacramento Kings at 42.4 percent.
That tells only part of the story but, in short, the Hawks weren't good enough defensively and the Heat shot the cover off the ball. Sometimes, multiple things can be true at once.
Elsewhere, the Hawks did have a strong shooting night on their own, posting 63.8 percent true shooting in the game. That was Atlanta's 10th-best true shooting mark of the season, and the Hawks entered the night with a 9-1 record when posting at least 63.8 percent true shooting. That is an indicator of the defensive struggles, but the Hawks also scuffled on the margins with strongly below-average marks in offensive rebound rate (22.0 percent), turnover rate (16.3 percent), and free throw creation (11 attempts).
The Hawks will enjoy a two-day break from game action before an interesting test on Sunday evening in Milwaukee. While Damian Lillard will unfortunately miss the game for the Bucks, the Bucks project to present a stiff test for Atlanta, and this will be the fifth meeting of the season between the teams. That is an oddity, of course, but the Hawks and Bucks squared off in the NBA Cup Semifinal in Las Vegas back in December, creating an extra, unscheduled matchup.
Following Thursday's loss, the Hawks hold a half-game lead on the Orlando Magic for the No. 7 seed and the Southeast Division lead. From there, Atlanta is two games ahead of Chicago and three games ahead of Miami in the Play-In race.