Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
Tyler Herro’s 3-pointer and Bam Adebayo’s dunk in the final two minutes helped the Miami Heat complete a fourth-quarter rally and beat the visiting Atlanta Hawks, 113-109, on Friday.
Miami (53-28) came into Friday’s matchup having already clinched the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, but held nothing back in a competitive game that could be a first-round playoff preview.
The Heat and Hawks exchanged the lead 17 times, were tied nine times, and neither led by more than seven points. Atlanta (42-39) took a six-point lead with 5:18 remaining when Kevin Huerter scored two of his 15 points on a mid-range jumper.
Huerter’s basket capped a 16-6 Hawks run over the first half of the fourth quarter.
Miami responded with its own 16-6 run that closed out the game. Adebayo scored six of his team-high 25 points over that stretch, including an emphatic dunk with 27.1 seconds remaining to break a 109-109 tie.
Kyle Lowry came up big in the decisive run, drawing a defender on penetration to free up Adebayo for the dunk. Lowry also made a steal and scored the last of his 16 points on a shot clock-beating fadeaway over the game’s final 4:44.
Herro scored five of his 15 points down the stretch, including a key pull-up 3-pointer to give Miami the lead with 1:44 to go.
Herro dished a game-high nine assists. Jimmy Butler scored 20 points, and Gabe Vincent added 11 points, including 3-of-6 shooting from beyond the 3-point arc in his 16:43 of action.
Trae Young led all scorers with 35 points, but endured a few critical miscues down the stretch. He committed one of his seven turnovers on a mistimed pass with a little more than two minutes remaining, and with the game tied at 109 in the final minute, shot a one-legged 3-pointer off the dribble that failed to draw rim.
Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 25 points off the bench in the loss, and Clint Capela recorded a double-double of 17 points and 14 rebounds.
–Field Level Media