Atlanta Hawks Advance To Playoffs After Beating Miami Heat

(CTN News) – Tuesday night, the Atlanta Hawks beat the Miami Heat 116-105 in a play-in tournament game to grab the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Dejounte Murray scored 18 points for the Hawks, who earned a first-round matchup with Boston on Saturday after a five-game loss last season.

For the Heat, Kyle Lowry scored 33 points, the most he has scored in two seasons, in a game that will determine the No. 8 seed and the team to play in Round 1. A game between the Raptors and Bulls will be played on Wednesday; the winner will face the Bucks on Sunday.

There were 26 points scored by Miami’s Tyler Herro and 21 points scored by Jimmy Butler.

A combined 53 points came from Saddiq Bey, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Onyeka Okongwu, and Jalen Johnson for the Hawks.

When New Orleans plays Oklahoma City on Wednesday night, it hopes to match the Hawks’ 3-0 record in play-in games all-time.

Moreover, they earned it on the boards. With a 63-39 rebounding advantage, Atlanta had a 26-6 edge in second-chance points, including a 22-6 advantage on the offensive glass.

A 24-point lead with 2:37 left in the first half – 63-39 Atlanta was the margin – was whittled away quickly by the Hawks in the first 3:53 of the third.

Miami cut the deficit to 15 at halftime, then went on a 16-6 run to begin the third quarter. All told, the Heat went on a 27-8 run in about 7 minutes of play to get within 71-66.

Despite this, the Hawks, as well as every other team the Heat faced, had an answer. In the fourth quarter, Miami closed to within six points of Atlanta, restoring a double-digit Atlanta lead.

This is the second time this season that Atlanta nearly blew a big lead in the first half. The Hawks held on to win 121-113 over Miami despite leading by 26 points. A game in which Capela had 20 rebounds occurred during the regular season.

Lowry made his first postseason appearance since 2009. During the post-season, he started all 94 appearances. In this season’s potential win-or-go-home game against Chicago and Toronto, the Heat have gone 1-6.

AIMING AHEAD

All of Boston’s rotation players missed at least one game against Atlanta this season. As a result, Young averaged 31 points, 11 assists, and 11 rebounds in two games against the Celtics; Jayson Tatum averaged 26.5 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists in two games against the Hawks.

In 2016, Atlanta won six games of the round one series between the Celtics and Hawks franchises. This will be the 13th series between the two franchises.

HISTORIC PLAY-INS

Play-in tournament 16th franchise Miami took part in. The list will be extended to 19 teams on Wednesday thanks to Chicago, Toronto, and Oklahoma City. Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Milwaukee, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento, and Utah remain to play in the play-in event.

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