The Miami Heat are officially up one game in their first-round NBA Playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks. Obliterating them on Sunday afternoon in the first NBA matchup of the afternoon, the Heat would get it done in multiple departments.
They hit a ton of shots as a team, while they saw the exquisite return of a few guys and from range, especially. Duncan Robinson and P.J. Tucker had themselves quite the games, combining for 43 points on 15-18 overall shooting and 12-13 from three.
That’s a huge part of what propelled them to a massive, 115-91, victory over the Hawks. While that was one side of it though, the Miami Heat also played their brand of defense.
The entirety of the Hawks’ squad felt it, going 29-75 from the field to shoot under 39 percent and 10-36 from three to shoot under 28 percent, but their main guy felt it more than anyone. To be clear, the Miami Heat put Trae Young—on ice.
1 of 12 from the field.
— Bally Sports Sun: HEAT (@BallyHEAT) April 17, 2022
0 of 7 from 3.
The Heat defense absolutely smothered Trae Young this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/Efcf2OTLDh
The Miami Heat were exceptional at guarding Trae Young on Sunday. Of course, you take that whenever you get it but they only need to be half as good to win.
Holding Young to just eight points, six rebounds, and four assists on 1-12 shooting from the field and 0-7 from three-point territory, this was his worst playoff game ever.
You have to consider that he only has 16 games played and all across last year’s sudden run to the conference finals, missing two out of a possible 18 accrued during last year’s postseason but still, that’s impressive. He’s averaged nearly 29 points, three rebounds, and 10 assists during that time.
Again though, that wasn’t the case on Sunday. And here’s the beautiful thing about it if you’re the Miami Heat.
You don’t have to be that effective on him every game to, still, dominate this series. Yes, if you can do that in every single game, you absolutely want it.
However, being half as effective could still put the Miami Heat in a position to, as much as, sweep the Atlanta Hawks.
Again, you want the Miami Heat to completely take him out of his game, as they did in the opening game on Sunday, however, it’s comforting to know that even if he gets loose a little bit, it won’t kill them.