Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks showed grit — they struggled with their shot in the first half, going 4-of-20 from 3 and trailing by 17, but fought back to lead with just more than three minutes left in the game.
It wasn’t enough. There was too much Tyler Herro for the first 48 minutes, he finished with 30 points, then Davion Mitchell dominated the overtime — he outscored the Hawks by himself, 9-8.
The ultimate result was a 123-114 Miami win. With that, the Heat became the first No. 10 seed ever to advance out of the Play-In Tournament, and they will face the No. 1 seed Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday night to start that series. The loss ends the Hawks’ season.
The other winner out of this game: The Oklahoma City Thunder. With the win, Miami’s first-round pick, at No. 15, goes to the Thunder (via a convoluted path that included the 2019 Paul George trade). OKC now has the No. 15 and No. 25 (via the Clippers) picks in the first round.
Miami came out hot on the road scoring the game’s first 10 points, a lead they stretched out to 17 points midway through the second quarter. Herro led all scorers with 30 points, shooting 5-of-10 from beyond the arc, including a couple of 3-pointers in overtime to help seal the win.
Atlanta fought back behind 29 points from Trae Young and a big night from center Onyeka Okongwu, who had 28 points. It was a driving layup by Young that forced overtime.
Andrew Wiggins added 20 points for Miami, and Bam Adebayo scored 17 points plus grabbed 11 rebounds. For Atlanta, George Niang had 20 points off the bench, and Caris LeVert had 15.
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