MIAMI — Jimmy Butler scored a playoff career-high 45 factors, together with a private 7-0 run within the closing moments, and the Miami Warmth held off the Atlanta Hawks 115-105 in Sport 2 of their Jap Convention first-round collection Tuesday evening.
Tyler Herro scored 15 for Miami, whereas Max Strus scored 14 and Gabe Vincent added 11 for top-seeded Miami, which took a 2-0 lead over the eighth-seeded Hawks.
Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 19 of his 29 factors within the fourth quarter for Atlanta. Trae Younger scored 25 for the Hawks, whereas De’Andre Hunter had 16 and John Collins completed with 13 factors and 10 rebounds for the Hawks.
Butler’s earlier playoff finest was 40, accomplished twice, each within the bubble when the Warmth made the 2020 NBA Finals. The Warmth wanted all of his heroics then, and so they wanted all of them on Tuesday as nicely.
Bogdanovic’s 3-pointer with 3:15 left received Atlanta inside 104-101.
From there, it was all Butler.
He had a dunk, a 3-pointer and one other dunk — all within the span of 56 seconds — to show issues from doubtful to locked down, placing Miami up 10 with 1:20 remaining and making certain the Warmth would end off the win.
“Simply staying aggressive,” Butler mentioned. “Taking what the protection offers me.”
As could be anticipated in a playoff collection, pleasantries started being exchanged with extra regularity. The primary half featured 16 fouls by Atlanta and 14 by Miami — a season-high for the Hawks, one off the season-high for the Warmth, and people 30 personals didn’t even embody a double technical that Lowry and Hunter received for getting face-to-face.
Younger picked up a technical for arguing a foul towards him late within the third as nicely, the capper to a interval the place the Warmth went from barely forward to holders of a double-digit lead going into the ultimate 12 minutes. He performed your complete third quarter, however managed solely two photographs in that span — making each — and didn’t get to the foul line, whereas committing 5 turnovers in that interval alone.
And in time, Miami hit its stride.
Kevin Huerter’s stepback 3-pointer with 8:59 left within the third pulled Atlanta inside 64-62. The Hawks went practically three minutes with out scoring once more, and the sport appeared very completely different after these three minutes.
The Warmth went 4 for 4 in that stretch — 3-pointers by Butler, P.J. Tucker and Strus, with a layup by Butler in there as nicely — and it added as much as an 11-0 run that pushed the lead out to 75-62. The margin remained no less than eight factors for the subsequent 11 minutes, earlier than Atlanta started clawing again.
Younger hit Collins with a strike for a layup, and Bogdanovic’s lengthy jumper received Atlanta inside 94-90 halfway by the fourth.
However the Hawks by no means received the lead. Butler noticed to that.
