Peachtree Hoops: Hawks unable to outlast Heat in double-overtime defeat

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Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

The Hawks hung in there but eventually ran out of gas in 2OT

The Atlanta Hawks battled the Miami Heat to a double-overtime contest but couldn’t find the plays they needed in the second overtime period, eventually falling 117-111 at State Farm Arena on Wednesday night.

Dejounte Murray led the Hawks with 29 points with De’Andre Hunter adding 23 points. For the Heat, Tyler Herro scored a game-high 33 points and Jimmy Butler added 29 points.

The Heat are one of a number of sides who are locked in a fierce battle with a number of teams in the Eastern Conference and absolutely needed this win. A loss for the Heat in this spot would have dramatically more ramifications to their season than a loss for the Hawks would in this spot, and in the first half the Heat certainly played like a team with more to lose.

After an evenly contested first quarter, the Heat began to apply the pressure and the lead extended into double-digits. The Hawks’ offense ground to a halt in the second quarter, shooting 34% to go with eight first half turnovers, some of which involved the Hawks just throwing the ball out of bounds on cross-court passes. Two late three-pointers from the Hawks at the end of the second quarter, including a buzzer-beater by Bogdan Bogdanovic cut the Miami lead to 12 points heading into the locker room — important plays that helped the Hawks not enter the half potentially trailing by 15 or 18 points.

The third quarter saw a marked improvement in the Hawks’ play, De’Andre Hunter leading the comeback effort with 13 third quarter points as the Hawks outscored the Heat 33-21. Jalen Johnson was making some timely plays for the Hawks, including this pass from the corner where Bam Adebayo had him trapped before Johnson’s creativity removed him from a bind:

Johnson had scored six points in the third himself but came up hobbled on a play underneath the basket, returned to the locker room. He was subsequently ruled out with a right ankle sprain, on which Hawks head coach Quin Snyder was unable to offer an update postgame.

Fast forwarding to the fourth quarter, Murray led the way with 11 points in the fourth as the game went down to the wire. The Hawks held a 99-98 lead after a made basket from Murray with 2:12 remaining, and the Heat had a number of opportunities from the free throw line through Hayward Highsmith — and Butler also missed an opportunity at the line leaving the Heat with just a two point lead.

Murray stepped up again for the Hawks as he gets by Butler on the drive — before Adebayo goaltends the basket to tie the game:

The Heat had around 17 seconds remaining to run a play coming out of a timeout to end the game, but the action is well defended by the Hawks — especially between Bogdanovic and Vit Krejci to deny the initial pass to Herro and then the switch from Bogdanovic to contest Herro at the buzzer:

A poor job from Miami executing in this instance but well defended by Atlanta here.

To overtime, and there wasn’t much to separate the two sides in the additional five minutes, as the Hawks initially holding a lead until Highsmith hit the three-pointer to tie the game at 107 apiece:

A tough play that one, as Clint Capela obviously felt threatened by the drive of Nikola Jovic here, and that draws him away from Adebayo which in turn takes Bogdanovic away from Highsmith. Did Capela overreact or did Krejci have the Jovic drive under control? Either way, Highsmith sinks the clutch three.

Murray is unable to respond as he again tries to shake Butler but doesn’t quite enjoy the same success as he did towards the end of regulation and misses the shot:

A good dig by Herro which helps force the spin inside from Murray as opposed to the drive going to Butler’s left.

Murray does, however, come up with a steal late in the game — the Heat’s last possession of overtime — and sets away in transition. Murray pulls up with time to spare but misses the contested shot and the Hawks are unable to create a second chance opportunity on the rebound:

Not calling timeout is perfectly OK in this spot. Coaches, and Snyder included, often talk about not wanting to give defenses to set up coming out of the timeout, and the Hawks have had a number of clutch plays that have come in similar situations highlighted by several Murray winners. Capela, I think, would have been worth considering on the roll here as he was in space. I think it would have been a potentially higher quality attempt than the one that went up from Murray. Alas, to second overtime we go!

And...it was at this point in the game where the Hawks crashed. The Heat, too, struggled. Neither side scored until there was 2:26 remaining and both teams looked leggy. The shot quality decreased dramatically, and when the Heat eventually got on the board the Hawks found a reply difficult to conjure.

As the clock begins to wind down, Murray has to settle for the tired jumpshot from three which is off line:

Once the Heat got on the board in second overtime, it was difficult for the Hawks to slow them down. Next, Herro gets downhill and hits the floater to put the Heat up by four points and the Hawks immediately return the ball to the Heat off a needless miscue out of bounds:

Off of that turnover, the Heat run their lead to four points after Highsmith’s floater off the drive from the perimeter:

The Hawks made a reply through Hunter to finally get on the board in double overtime, but they just couldn’t get any stops once the Heat got going, as Jovic scores off the drive from the outside with tired legs finding it difficult to rotate:

Capela’s close range miss with under a minute to go, now trailing by six points, put the Hawks in a precarious position — one they wouldn’t recover from:

Capela would score at the death to give the Hawks another two points in second overtime, but the damage had been done by then: the Hawks had scored just two points that mattered in the second overtime.

Postgame, Snyder didn’t focus on the overtime execution or the Hawks running out of gas. Instead, he focused on the defense the Hawks played and how pleased he was with the Hawks’ defense in the second half, holding the Heat to 39% shooting.

“I thought we started out the game a step slow,” said Snyder. “I thought we played really good defense in the second half. We talk about communicating and there was a possession from our bench where De’Andre was talking, talking, talking, talking about things we’re trying to do and letting his teammates know. I thought that was indicative to me of the way we competed defensively. We were able to climb back in the game and we were right there.”

The Hawks shot 2-of-12 in the decisive second overtime, and Snyder believed the Hawks had some good looks but just didn’t covert those opportunities.

“We had the lead at one point too,” said Snyder of the second overtime period. “You want to stay aggressive, and we had some good looks that didn’t fall. I don’t really begrudge that, as long as guys are confident and playing for each other. I thought we did a few things that were pretty good to get to spots, and it’s always hard to get wide open looks late in the game. We had some makable shots, and they just didn’t go in, and Miami hit a couple as well.”

The Hawks didn’t dip into their bench for either overtime period, with Krejci filling the absence left by Jalen Johnson. The expectation of Krejci was laid out simply by Snyder postgame.

“For Vit, we just want him to compete and be instinctive offensively,” said Snyder of Krejci in Johnson’s absence.

The Hawks’ lack of legs was very understandable. Krejci played 22 minutes in the second half and overtime periods once Johnson went down, but the likes of Murray (30 second half minutes), Hunter (29 second half and overtime minutes) and Bogdanovic (27 second half and overtime minutes) logged heavy minutes, and it ultimately caught up to them.

The final percentages should be viewed with a grain of salt for that reason with the Hawks shooting 39% from the field (attempting 25 more field goal attempts than Miami) and 21% from three on 46 attempts. With the Heat shooting 47% from the field and hitting 18 threes on 40% from threes, it was those 25 additional field goal attempts — helped by Atlanta’s 17 offensive rebounds leading to 23 second chance points — that helped the Hawks counter the Heat’s efficient shooting night.

The Hawks deserve credit for their second half showing, but in the end they had their chances to win — more so in the first overtime period which I think is the one where they could look at and say ‘We let that one pass us by.’ All in all, I think the Heat were marginally the better side, but the Hawks made their life significantly more difficult than expected on a night where they’re obviously missing personnel (as were the Heat) and then lost Jalen Johnson midway through the contest.

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The Hawks (36-43) are back in action tonight to take on the Charlotte Hornets (19-60) at State Farm Arena. Despite the Hawks playing a double-overtime game, they are still considered double-digit favorites on the second night of a back-to-back.

The game today also marks the final home game of the regular season for the Hawks, though it remains to be seen if the Hawks can force one last return for the 9-10 matchup with the Bulls in the looming Play-In tournament. The Hawks are one game behind but crucially do not own the tiebreaker and would need the Bulls to essentially drop all three of their remaining games. And while all three are on the road, two of them are in Washington and Detroit.

Ninth would appear unlikely, but the matchup is set regardless.

Until next time...

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