Official Playoff Game Thread: Hawks at heat -- GAME 1

[lethalweapon3]

“Wait, is that… James? James Butler, from Tomball High???”

 

Joe Johnson was giving people buckets! So, for that matter, was Josh McRoberts. And Justise Winslow.

Such was the case the last time the Miami heat won a playoff game in Miami-Wade County.

Just ask Erik Spoelstra, he was there. Or, better yet, ask Kyle Lowry. He was giving buckets, too, albeit for the other side. May 13, 2016, to refresh your memory.

After getting dispatched for years as the marquee performer on the annually playoff-bound Atlanta Hawks, Joe never got a chance at playoff vengeance against the Cleveland Cavaliers’ superstar during his latter runs to glory as a founding member of the heatles. Instead, the eventual 34-year-old had transitioned fully into If You Can’t Beat ‘Em mode, previously with KG and the ex-Celts in Brooklyn, then in Miami with D-Wade, with Udonis Haslem helping Coach Spo keep everyone’s bench seats warm.

The Three J’s were doing all they could to help Dwyane and Goran Dragic earn their keep in the aftermath of the Return of the Former King to Ohio. They would do enough to help the heat outlast the Raptors’ static duo of Lowry and DeMar DeRozan in Game 6, but their production was not enough for Miami in the series finale at Toronto.

We have established the Miami heat as the gold standard of the Southeast Division, if not the Eastern Conference, and this season’s slow, if unsteady rise to a conference-leading 53-29 record did little to tarnish that reputation. Spoelstra’s got his shiny rings, team godfather Pat Riley has more than his share. But I get this gnawing feeling that the heat are like the Sears Roebuck of the 1990s NYSE. They’re atop the charts, as they have been for awhile, looking pretty, with zero idea what is soon to befall them.

Wade and Shaq helped salvage the heat’s reputation as a good club that couldn’t get it done when it mattered most. That was less than a decade after Coach Riley’s 1-seed heat were stunned at home by the 8-seed Knicks in the fifth and final game of the first-round series. Beset by injuries and chemistry challenges during a truncated regular season, scrambling late in the season just to get playoff-qualified, arch-enemy New York upset Miami in the first round, for the second year in a row, this time on the path to The Finals.

If you catch yourself wondering why you’ve been treated to the random musings of Jeff Van Gundy on a weekly basis for decades on end, thank Riley’s heat from the ‘90s. Had Stan not gotten canned by Riley early in 2005-06’s title season, we’d never get either brother’s opinions off our TV sets.

Wade’s Miami campaign seemed to be coming to a close, and Spoelstra’s rookie run taking over for Riley about to be one-and-done, in 2009 when the heat lost a seven-game rockfight at the hands of Joe, Flip Murray and the Hawks. It was 4-seed Atlanta’s first series win in ages. As Joe’s Hawks finally looked to be on the precipice of breaking through as Orlando’s top challenger, for Wade, Spoelstra and Haslem, they seemed to be nearing the end of the Metromover line. Dwyane and his banana boatmates had other ideas.

I can’t possibly ask for much out of this series that begins today (1 PM Eastern, really ought to be later in the day like the Pelicans but okay, 92.9 FM in ATL, TNT), furthering another chapter in the Hawks-heat rivalry. My hurried fingers aren’t even typing were it not for “The Big Chill”, Trae Young, being Shot-on-Ehlo-GOOD in the second half of Friday’s triumphant high-wire act in Cleveland. All I can request, whichever way it falls, is that these contests look pretty. And not pretty ugly.

The 2009 series rivaled 2010’s seven games against Brandon Jennings’ Bucks as the butt-ugliest Best-of-7 NBA playoff round in recent memory. Thirteen years later, there should be nothing reminiscent of Iso Joe milking the shot clock dry, Smoove daring his own fans with off-balance, off-rhythm threes, Al jap-stepping with no follow-up plan, no wild shooting off the bench from the likes of Marvin, Flip, Mo and Zaza.

At the other end of the sideline, with all respect due, there will be many better options for Spoelstra to deploy in 2022 than Mike Beasley and Daequan Cook. Sixth-man extraordinaire Tyler Herro, bucket splasher Duncan Robinson and defensive backstop Bam Adebayo (active, Straight Outta COVID) will offer ample support for Lowry and Jimmy Butler, each of whom commandeered their way to Miami in hopes of extending past glories at playoff time.

The desperation for Riley and Miami to acquire Lowry, a ring-bearing point guard, was heightened after last season’s Playoffs. First, Butler and the heat were stifled by Giannis’ Bucks in a first-round sweep loaded with blowouts. Then, they watched Young’s upstart Hawks push those same Bucks nearly to the brink in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Miami won those conference finals in a Bubble just up the road in Disney World in 2020. But they haven’t been successful as the home team, in a venue that didn’t feature Max Headrooms and cardboard-cutout celebrities, since the spring of 2016. Old Man and the Three’s J.J. Redick, along with Marco Belinelli and Dario Saric carried precocious Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid to a gentleman’s sweep of Wade and the heat in 2018 that included two Sixer wins in what is now FTX Arena. Miami's horrible fans didn’t even want to be let back in by games' end.

Over the last 15 games of this season, it was the heat (9-6; 3.7 Net Rating, 8^th in NBA East) that looked more the part of an 8-seed than Atlanta (10-5; 5.6 Net Rating, 7^th in NBA). That’s not counting the past week’s Play-In contests. Miami having Adebayo and P.J. Tucker (probable, strained calf) will aid in securing defensive boards, as is their team’s frontcourt forte. Where Miami could fall into trouble is in failing to get shots up without turning over the ball (14.4 team TOs per-48, tied w/ CLE and ORL for most in NBA East).

Lowry, Herro, Adebayo, Butler and even Victor Oladipo commit at least two turnovers per game, in all but Butler’s case close to three per 36 minutes. The turnovers that the heat, in particular Lowry, produces tend to be more of the dead-ball variety, allowing opponents a moment to recover. If Atlanta can win the live-ball turnover game, along with the fastbreak scoring (MIA minus-1.5 net fastbreak points per-48 since the All-Star Break; ATL opponent’s 10.7 fastbreak points per-36 in the regular season lowest among Playoff teams), they can control the pace and keep the heat cooled on their heels.

While the short turnaround in the schedule is disconcerting for the Hawks, and the absence of Clint Capela (out through at least Game 3, hyperextended knee) and the tentative return of South Floridian John Collins a bit disorienting, Atlanta affirmed that when they’re not over-reliant on either Young or the supporting cast to carry the entire day, they can be a tough cover, and a tougher out. Against this version of the heat, Onyeka Okongwu is free to play the role of ’99 Marcus Camby, as the breakout young center pressed into prominence in a playoff pinch.

Obviously, these Hawks already know the drill: steal a game or two here in Miami, take care of business back home, move on and move on up. Ultimately, I hope to see two decent teams, led by well-seasoned coaches, play like it, and if there can to be only one, make it Nate McMillan’s.

However long this series lasts, I want to see crisp closeouts, bodacious boxouts, scintillating screens, rational rotations, and handy dribble hand-offs. Pretty, please. With sugar on top!

 

Ramadan Mubarak! Chag Pesach sameach! Happy Easter! Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[NBASupes]

Let's go Hawks!

[Spud2nique]

45 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Pretty, please. With sugar on top!

48 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Onyeka Okongwu is free to play the role of ’99 Marcus Camby,

Yes sir!

 

48 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Max Headrooms and cardboard-cutout

 loved that and Sledge Hammer back in the day.

 

49 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Shot-on-Ehlo-GOOD

Heard more than any phrase.

Vegas has Heat -6.5,

2k to come.

 

Nice lw3, I worked backwards lol.

Go Hawks!

 

[Spud2nique]

Hawks by 5 in 2K, 107-102. 
 

Trae 49/6

Stellar as usual. 

[lethalweapon3]

One happy correction: Locals can watch these games on BS Southeast! Sorry, Chuck.

~lw3

[JayBirdHawk]

10 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Over the last 15 games of this season, it was the heat (9-6; 3.7 Net Rating, 8^th in NBA East) that looked more the part of an 8-seed than Atlanta (10-5; 5.6 Net Rating, 7^th in NBA).

...and all without John Collins.

Let's Get 'Em Hawks!!!

[kg01]

10 hours ago, NBASupes said:

Let's go Hawks!

Oh, look at you huntin likes. 

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

One happy correction: Locals can watch these games on BS Southeast! Sorry, Chuck.

Oh thank the sweet baby jeebus.

11 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

“Wait, is that… James? James Butler, from Tomball High???”

Bwahahahaaa..

 Jimi!

[RandomFan]

 

[hawkman]

3 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

One happy correction: Locals can watch these games on BS Southeast! Sorry, Chuck.

~lw3

Thank goodness. 

[kg01]

21 minutes ago, RandomFan said:

 

I dunno man.  Sounds like he's not actually ready.  Kinda makes me wish Johnson was ready-er.  We gotta punish their lack of size. 

[RandomFan]

NSFW hype video found on reddit.

https://streamable.com/r4ac9h

 

[RandomFan]

11 minutes ago, kg01 said:

I dunno man.  Sounds like he's not actually ready.  Kinda makes me wish Johnson was ready-er.  We gotta punish their lack of size. 

JC is arisen this day. John Collins, that is. 

[JayBirdHawk]

2 minutes ago, RandomFan said:

JC is arisen this day. John Collins, that is. 

I see what you did there 

 

 

[kg01]

18 minutes ago, RandomFan said:

JC is arisen this day. John Collins, that is. 

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh snap ..... you goin' straight to heyul, RF. 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[kg01]

Ayo @Spud2nique, I got my loafers on with no socks.  I got a jheri curl.  And I got my pastels workin'.  

Crockett 'n Tubbs is in this b*tch!

I been listening to Phil Collins all mornin' ...

Oh I can feel it comin' in the air tonight... oh, lo'rd.... oh, lo'rd....

I'm more ready than Pastor Troy rite now!

Yeah, that's right.  A Phil Collins/Pastor Troy shout in the same post!

ThasHowRed-EIAmMickyFickies!!!!

Betta get-cho mines rite!!!

 

[RedDawg#8]

With his shooting hand injured and no Capela to share the floor with him, JC can focus on being the dominant roll player that he was before Clints arrival. Especially if he is sharing the floor with Gallo or Dre at PF. 

I would expect to see less outside shooting and more rim running from him today.

[JayBirdHawk]

Ready!

 

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

 

[Sothron]

We need OO to avoid bad fouls. The refs love to whistle everything on him. I mean EVERYTHING. He has had I don't know how many blocks taken away by bad calls.