Trae Young extends hot streak, but Hawks fall to Heat

Early in the game, it was Tyler Herro who fired away from deep to help get the Heat out to a seven- point lead. Herro scored 14 of his 30 points in the first quarter before the Hawks found a way to adjust defensively in the second and third quarters.

If it wasn’t Herro going off from deep, it was Duncan Robinson, who capitalized on playing time in the absence of Jimmy Butler (left calf strain). He had just six points before dropping 21 in the fourth quarter.

He joins Giannis Antetokounmpo, LaMelo Ball, De’Aaron Fox, Anfernee Simons and James Harden as the only players in the NBA to score 21 or more points in a fourth quarter this season.

“They’re really good shooting team,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “Some of the the actions where we had,, they weren’t breakdowns but we weren’t as aggressive enough in the switch and they execute.”

2. A cold offense did not help the Hawks’ case in the second half, shooting 38.5% overall. They opened the third on a 10-2 run and built up an 11-point lead. But the offense fell stagnant despite plenty of good looks.

The backcourt of Trae Young and Dejounte Murray combined for 35 of the team’s 53 second-half points. Young ended the night with 30 points and had 13 assists while Murray chipped in 24 points, had eight rebounds and six assists.

But the Heat shot 56.3% from deep and the Hawks just could not keep pace even though they made the same number of 3s in the second.

3. Bogdan Bogdanovic continued to shoot out of his mind on as he lit up the stat sheet in the second quarter after going 1-of-2 from 3 in the first.

He found his rhythm quickly in the period, hitting a 3 just 12 seconds into the frame. He then hit another two 65 seconds apart. He made his fourth and fifth 3s of the quarter 68 seconds apart and brought the Hawks within 56-54 with 2:40 left in the second.

Unfortunately for the Hawks, he cooled off in the second half of the game and simply could not buy a bucket. He went 0-of-9 from distance with a couple of those attempts rolled halfway down the rim before they popped back out.

4. The Hawks pushed as they hustled to make something happen toward the end of the game. They showed little concern for the following day with the game within a couple of possessions down to the end.

Several of the team’s key rotational players wracked up the minutes with Young and Bey playing 40 minutes. Bogdanovic and Murray both logged 35 and 34 minutes respectively.

The Hawks face the high powered Grizzlies, who saw the return of Ja Morant to their lineup earlier this week. Morant is already averaging 27 points per game in his first two games since returning from a league suspension.

5. Part of that came down to the absence of De’Andre Hunter (right knee soreness). The Hawks started Garrison Mathews and he injected some intensity into the rotation, drawing a pair of charges off of Bam Adebayo and Jaime Jaquez.

The Hawks also saw plenty of hustle from Patty Mills, who dove on the floor for a loose ball in the third as the team looked to capitalize on their energy boost in the opening minutes of the frame.

“That’s a huge play,” Snyder said. “Those are winning plays and we had a few charges. We had something that’s what we felt in that third quarter and the second half.”

Stat to know

3 -- Trae Young is three 30-plus point, 10-plus assists games away from tying Hall of Famer Jerry West (73) for the sixth-most 30p/10a games in NBA history.

Quotable

“They got a lot of guys who can play and they have a system in how they play. So it really doesn’t matter who’s in for them. It’s just about they’re gonna make shots or miss shots that night and it’s the team that they’re playing against is gonna force them to do those type of things.” -- Trae Young on the difficulty of slowing down the Heat.

Up Next

The Hawks return home to State Farm Arena to host Ja Morant and the Grizzlies on Saturday in the second night of back-to-back games.