Hawks sunk by Heat in rematch, 106-97

The Atlanta Hawks hosted the Miami Heat in a nationally televised Halloween game between division foes. Atlanta looked to get back in the win column following a pair of losses earlier in the week.

As a result of Trae Young’s absence, the Hawks started Cam Reddish, Kevin Huerter, De’Andre Hunter, John Collins and Alex Len.

Justice Winslow missed the contest for Miami with a back issue. Miami started Kendrick Nunn, Duncan Robinson, Jimmy Butler, Meyers Leonard and Bam Adebayo.

Atlanta got off to a 9-4 start, with Reddish scoring four of those points.

Collins with more sound defensive work, a staple early this season.

The Heat fired back with a 17-1 run, getting out to an ten-point lead by the 2:43 mark in the first.

Atlanta closed the quarter with a bang, cutting the lead to four on one of the most exciting sequences of the night.

The Heat pushed the lead back to 15 in the middle of the second as Atlanta struggled to generate good looks offensively on a consistent basis. They led 48-33 with 4:37 remaining in the second.

The Hawks scrapped to get deficit back to a five-point game by the 1:09 mark, with a 10-1 run, finally finding some sort of rhythm offensively.

The Heat led the Hawks 52-46 at the break, a score that certainly could have been much worse for the home team. DeAndre’ Bembry led the way for Atlanta with 10 points, seven rebounds and three assists.

The Hawks were 2-for-17 from three-point range in the first half with seven assists and seven turnovers. All things considered, this halftime score was fortunate for Atlanta.

Adebayo led the Heat in terms of scoring with 11 points to go along with three assists, two rebounds, a steal and a block.

Miami pushed the lead back to 11 by the 8:40 mark in the third, going on a 9-2 run following Reddish’s first career three-point make.

Another 13-2 Miami run put them out in front 73-57 with 5:22 remaining in the third, as they begun to take control of the game. The Hawks struggled immensely offensively in the third and were just as bad defensively for the most part. Miami was able to get stops, turnovers and easy transition buckets repeatedly.

Late in the third, Collins stepped on Nunn’s foot a turned his left ankle. He left the game for a few minutes but returned in the fourth quarter.

Following the injury, the Hawks showed signs of life, going on a 10-1 run to cut it back to seven before a Tyler Herro three-pointer to end the quarter made it 85-75 heading to the fourth.

The Hawks cut it back to four at 87-83 on a Jabari Parker tip-slam at the 9:45 mark. A three-pointer by Herro and layup by Chris Silva put the Miami lead back at nine with 8:51 to play.

A Huerter three cut it back to eight with 6:35 to play, then Bembry got it back to six with 5:49 to play. Heat 94, Hawks 88, timeout Miami.

Miami came out of the timeout with two threes from Leonard, making the lead 100-88 with 3:45 to play. Butler found Nunn on a cut for an easy lay in to make the run 8-0 and the lead 12 with 3:06 to play.

The Hawks were not able to come back from that point, ultimately losing 106-97.

The bench led the way tonight for Atlanta, with 23 points from Parker and 18 from Bembry, who also had ten rebounds and eight assists. Nunn paced Miami with 28 points, with Herro adding 17 off the bench.

The Hawks struggled mightily in their first full game without Young, shooting 40.9% from the floor and 20.6% from three.

The Hawks are off for the weekend, and will be back in action Tuesday night against the Spurs from State Farm Arena.