The Miami HEAT fell to the Atlanta Hawks 112-102 Wednesday night at AmericanAirlines Arena. Dwyane Wade led the way for the HEAT with 28 points and seven assists.
Impact Performance of the Night: Both Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade had solid outings against the Hawks. Bosh primarily attacked from the perimeter and hit all three of his 3-pointers. He also made some nice plays on the defensive end, one of which will be touched upon later. In all, Bosh shot 9-of-12 for 27 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.
Wade, meanwhile, started to get going in the second quarter after a slow start to the game. He also scored a lot down the stretch in the fourth quarter, but it unfortunately wasn’t enough. Wade shot an efficient 11-of-20 for his 28 points and dished out seven assists.
The Deciding Run: Miami went on a 9-1 run to cut the Hawks’ lead to 108-98 with about two and a half minutes left in regulation, but it wasn’t enough. Wade led the charge and Chalmers made some nice plays as well.
Earlier, the HEAT went on a 16-4 run to cut lead the Hawks’ lead to 49-47 with 1:09 left in the second quarter. Dwyane Wade started to get going during the run and the HEAT played much better defense as a whole in the second quarter.
Play of the Game: With 1:22 to go in the second quarter, Jeff Teague brought the ball up in transition. He passed it to DeMarre Carroll, who seemed to have an easy layup. However, Chris Bosh came from behind, swatted Carroll's shot attempt and kept it in-play. The great defensive play led to a mid-range jumper from Dwyane Wade on the other end and a four-point swing.
Earlier in the game, Dwyane Wade had the ball just outside the left block. With two guys on him, Wade threw an excellent pass to Josh McRoberts cutting inside. McRoberts finished the slam to put Miami up 8-7 with 8:05 left in the first quarter.
Another nice play came with 7:50 left in the third quarter. Mario Chalmers grabbed a defensive rebound off a Kyle Korver missed jumper. Chalmers then brought it all the way down court, absorbed contact from Korver and finished the tough layup. Chalmers hit the ensuing free-throw to cut the Hawks’ lead to 61-59.
Efficiency Rating: Offensive Efficiency: 109.6; Defensive Efficiency: 114.1
Trend to Watch: After struggling a bit the past few games, Mario Chalmers came up huge against the Hawks. Chalmers made some great passes, both from the perimeter and off-the-dribble. He did the most damage in the third quarter, where he scored eight of his 19 points and dished out three of his 11 assists. It was encouraging to see Chalmers come through with a nice bounce-back performance in the absence of Norris Cole.
The Takeaway: As expected, the Hawks displayed solid ball movement and that was difficult for the HEAT to deal with. Jeff Teague and Dennis Schroder caused fits for the HEAT, but Miami kept fighting back. As stated before, Wade nearly brought the HEAT back with a late run, but it just wasn’t in the cards.
On the bright side, everyone who saw action for Miami on Wednesday night scored with the exception of Danny Granger. Also, Josh McRoberts earned his first start and dazzled with some fancy passing. Up next for the HEAT is the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night.