The Atlanta Hawks surprised a lot of people Tuesday night with their strong performance against the Miami Heat in the NBA Play-In Tournament. The Hawks only trailed for 1:05 throughout the entirety of the game, and that was when it was 2-0 at the very beginning of the game. The Hawks near wire-to-wire victory finished with a final score of 116-105.
Early Wednesday, The Morning Shift reacted to the Hawks punching their playoff ticket in dominant fashion in Miami.
Not only did the Hawks earn the seventh seed in the East with a win last night in Miami, but they also snapped a losing streak and avenged their first-round playoff exit last year that came at the hands of the Miami Heat. The Heat basically dominated the Hawks in four of the five games last year. And the Hawks had lost seven straight games in Miami entering Tuesday night. The Hawks had also lost eight of their last 10 games against the Heat overall.
Those statistics, and the memory of what happened in last year, alone were enough to motivate the Hawks. But the Hawks were given a little extra motivation. Before last night’s game, 17 NBA analysts for ESPN came together to make a panel, and they all made their picks for the game. All 17 panelists picked the Miami Heat to win.
Dejounte Murray saw this and commented on it after the game. Hawks players may or may not have seen this before the game, so there’s no telling if that gave them motivation before the game.
However, we do know that at least Trae Young, if not more Hawks players, saw Jimmy Butler’s comments when Butler guaranteed a Heat victory on Monday.
“So as I take on tomorrow’s matchup, and we get that dub, we’ll worry about what goes on down the line.” After the game during his post game press conference Trae Young said “I know Jimmy guaranteed a dub so I was really focused on making sure that didn't happen.”
Young, and the Atlanta Hawks, definitely played like they were focused on proving Butler wrong. Young led the Hawks in scoring last night with 25 points, but he really did a great job of being a facilitator, getting the Hawks into their offense, and making sure the ball kept moving. Young’s seven assists don’t even tell the full story of his facilitation last night.
However, it was a full team effort for the Hawk, and they dominated the Heat in almost every aspect of the game. The Hawks’ bench outscored the Heat’s bench 53-37, the Hawks out rebounded the Heat 63-39, the Hawks outscored the Heat in the paint 64-46, and the Hawks had 26 second chance points and the Heat only had six. Finally, the Hawks had eight blocks last night and the Heat only had four.
The Hawks were fast on offense and never let the Heat’s half-court defense get set. They had great ball movement on offense as well. Defensively, the Hawks did a great job contesting and altering shots on the perimeter and at the rim. However, the most important thing the Hawks did last night was bring the fight to the Heat. The Hawks knew the Heat were going to be physical, so the Hawks were physical. The Hawks hit the Heat in the mouth first, and never stopped punching.
Atlanta has punched its playoff ticket, and are in the playoffs for the third consecutive season, and look to upset the Boston Celtics. Game 1 of the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs between the Hawks and the Celtics is set for Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET.