Miami Heat beat on the boards, lose play-in game vs Hawks: What comes next?

In another letdown during a disappointing season, the Miami Heat lost to the Atlanta Hawks, 116-105, in Tuesday night’s play-in game. On Friday, they’ll have one more chance to win a game and advance to the playoffs. Here’s what you need to know:

• The Heat will face the winner of Wednesday’s game between the No. 9 seed Toronto Raptors and No. 10 seed Chicago Bulls at Kaseya Center. The winner of that game will advance to the playoffs as the No. 8 seed and take on the No. 1 seed Milwaukee Bucks.
• Against the Hawks, the Heat trailed by as many as 24 points but clawed back in the second half to cut the deficit to single digits with minutes left in the game.
• Jimmy Butler finished with 21 points on 6 of 19 shooting and nine assists, Tyler Herro added 26 points and Kyle Lowry had a Heat-career-high 33 points, including 14 in the fourth quarter.
• Trae Young was good enough, with 25 points on 8 of 18 shooting and seven assists to five turnovers, but Atlanta’s real advantage came on the glass, where they out-rebounded the Heat 63-33 and scored 26 second-chance points.

Comeback falls short

Jimmy Butler walked into an uncontested layup 36 seconds into the game. That turned out to be Butler’s best moment and Miami’s only lead of the game. Over the next 47 minutes and 24 seconds, the Heat struggled to make shots and compete with Atlanta’s size and athleticism.

A pair of layups by Trae Young, a 3-pointer from Saddiq Bey and Dejounte Murray free throw capped a 15-3 run by the Hawks that gave them a 24-point lead with 2:37 left in the first half.

Kyle Lowry scored 10 points in the final 2:30 to cut the deficit to 15 at halftime, then Tyler Herro rattled off six points in the first 92 seconds of the second half to draw the Heat to within 11.  Lowry erupted in the fourth quarter, scoring eight points in the opening minutes to cut the deficit to six with 7:40 left.

But every time the Heat got close, Young managed to make a play or the Hawks seemed to come up with an offensive rebound. With 2:59 to go, Herro had cut the deficit to nine and the Heat forced Young into a missed 3-pointer, but Clint Capela grabbed the offensive rebound and Dejounte Murray scored to push Atlanta’s lead back to 11 and close the door on Miami’s final comeback attempt.

“We just couldn’t get those finishing rebounds,” Spoelstra said.

The Heat shot 32.4% from 3-point range, but most damning was the inability of Butler and Bam Adebayo to convert in the paint.  Miami’s top two players combined to miss 18 of 27 shots in the paint, including several uncharacteristic misses at point-blank range. Meanwhile, the Hawks dominated the glass with 27 offensive rebounds that led to 26 second-chance points.

“Rebounding was just horrendous,” Butler said.

Although their did appear to be several 50-50 balls that bounced in Atlanta’s direction, more evident was the size disadvantage the Heat were playing at.

“It’s tough being out there not 6-9,” Lowry said.

Added Herro, “They beat the hell out of us.”

Quotes

• “At least we have a lot of experience. We’ve had a lot of ups and downs this season, nothing about this season has been easy, so we’re going to do this the hard way.” — Spoelstra.
• “It’s win or go home at this point.” — Adebayo.
• “When shots don’t go in, we don’t rebound, we foul, that’s not a recipe of success for us. Come Friday, we have to play the exact opposite of how we played tonight.” — Butler.