Hawks, Warmth battle for play-in place in late-season matchup

The seventh-place Hawks maintain a four-game lead over the Tenth-place Warmth , whereas No. 8 Orlando sits a half-game behind Atlanta and No. 9 Chicago sits a recreation forward of Miami.

Atlanta misplaced floor on Tuesday, because the Hawks fell in Houston to the Rockets, 121-114, and Orlando picked up a seven-point highway win over the Charlotte Hornets and Miami topped the Golden State Warriors, 112-86.

The Hawks trailed by as many as 25 factors late within the third quarter Tuesday earlier than seeing their three-game profitable streak come to an finish. Atlanta’s rally reduce its deficit to 4 within the last quarter, displaying a battle that it hopes will carry over into Thursday.

“We had been proper there,” Hawks head coach Quin Snyder mentioned. ” needed to make performs to beat us down the stretch. I assumed we discovered some actual rhythm, which was good for us tonight and will probably be good for us going ahead.”

In defeat, Trae Younger completed with 19 factors and 12 assists, marking his third straight double-double and growing his league-leading assists depend to 11.4 per recreation. Younger, who paces Atlanta with 24.1 factors per recreation, grew to become the primary participant within the NBA to succeed in 1,500 factors and 750 assists in a single season since Russell Westbrook in 2019.

On the opposite aspect of the ball, Atlanta’s budding star Dyson Daniels continues to set franchise and league marks, defensively. Daniels leads the league with 3.1 steals per recreation, an awesome edge on second-place Kris Dunn’s 1.8. Along with his 4 thefts on Tuesday, Daniels is on tempo to grow to be the primary participant since Alvin Robertson in 1990-91 to common three steals per recreation over a season.

After dropping 10 straight video games the Warmth’s longest skid since 2007-08 Miami enters play winners in two in a row because it hopes to muster a late season run to the playoffs. Tuesday marked the return to Miami for former disgruntled star Jimmy Butler, however the evening belonged to the Warmth, who allowed a season-low 86 factors.

Miami’s Bam Adebayo’s 27 factors had been paired with stifling protection on the smaller Butler, which got here as no shock to go coach Erik Spoelstra.

“That is not even one thing that we did only for this recreation,” Spoelstra mentioned of the matchup. “Over the past six weeks, Bam has been guarding whoever the most effective wing is, and he has taken on this problem. It is a new defensive chapter in his prowess, however we’ve not been profitable so no one notices. However it’s about his dedication to doing loads of the powerful issues.”

Tyler Herro has scored 20 factors or extra in 4 of 5 video games and leads Miami with 23.4 ppg. Andrew Wiggins follows with 20.2 ppg, whereas Adebayo chips in 17.6 factors and 9.7 rebounds per contest.

Atlanta has taken two of three towards Miami this season and can look to clinch its first season-series over the Warmth for the reason that 2020-21 marketing campaign.

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