Celebrities out in full force for Hawks vs. Heat Play-In game

The Hawks also tapped Atlanta native and in-game arena host, Shamea Morton to lend her vocals at halftime.

“Not only have I watched the Hawks the entire season, I’ve been watching the Hawks since I was a child,” Morton said. “I grew up in Atlanta. I was grown here, not flown here, so I’m true to Atlanta. This is my city. This is my home, and these are my best friends out there. I’m thrilled to perform for them, because I went from being a cheerleader and dancer starting in 2003 to now, you know, being the in-arena host and now performing my single ‘Neva Had,’ it’s a full-circle moment, and it is unimaginably just surreal.”

Like Morton, many of the celebrities who have watched the Hawks this season have been impressed with their resiliency in the face of adversity.

“(The Hawks) ability to stay in the game when they down by double digits and come back for the W,” Clifford Harris, known by his stage name as T.I., said. “I’ve come to a few games, man, and I think maybe two or three out of the four or five of the games that I’ve come to have been games that they were down by like 10 or more ahead and they rally back and bring the W home. I think that’s a testament to the resilience of the team, man. And I think you know tonight’s gonna be an example of the same thing.”

The Hawks trailed the Heat by as many as 17 points Friday night, but came out in the second half with an intensity that allowed them to cut their deficit to three off a pair of 3’s from Terance Mann and Trae Young. A Dyson Daniels floater tied the score at 88-88 before Young drained a 3 from the logo to put the Hawks up 91-88 with just over seven minutes to play.

The Hawks have run a segment all season long where players guess whether lyrics are those of artificial intelligence or T.I. They ran the segment Friday night, using lyrics from T.I.’s hit song “What You Know” before flashing to the three-time Grammy Award winner after.

But the Hawks also had NFL players in the crowd cheering them on in their bid to make it to the playoffs in Falcons running Bijan Robinson, as well as NFL free agent and Stone Mountain native Preston Smith.

“It’s awesome for the city,” Robinson said. “Obviously, everybody wants us to be in the playoffs, and wants us to go and do big things in the playoffs. So I think for us, like, you know, for Trae and all the all the leaders on the team, like just understanding that this is just another game for us to succeed, to try to get where we want to go. And I think we will do that and everything will be all right.”

The Hawks not only erased a 17-point lead, but they would cut into two 12-point deficits and eventually take a 91-88 lead with 7:36 to play in the game. They eventually built that into a six-point lead before the Heat adjusted and regained control of the game.

“It’s great because these are the games where you see the guys, lay it all on the line, man, and they exhaust themselves for the cause to get to the next round or get to the next game, and just the resiliency and the fight that they put in for a playoff opportunity, another chance to further themselves in the playoffs and to bring you know titles to the team and for the city,” Smith, who has a Hawks tattoo, said.

The Hawks kept fighting, forcing the game to overtime after Young knotted things at 106-106 on a driving layup at the end of regulation.

But making all of those comebacks eventually caught up to the Hawks and their bid for the playoffs came up short.

Though the Hawks’ season came to a close Friday, they feel nothing but gratitude the fans regardless of their status for lifting them up.

“It was good to be at home,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “We always get a lift from our fans here, particularly tonight, when we started the game. I thought it was impactful for us, because we found more energy. We found more juice.”