Hawks fall to Heat 109-117

The Atlanta Hawks returned to home court on Saturday Nov.11, to face the Miami Heat for the first of four regular season contests against their Southeast Division rival at State Farm Arena.

The last time these two teams met was on 4/11/23 in the first game of the 2023 NBA Play-In Tournament. Atlanta took a 116-105 win, grabbing 63 rebounds in the victory, earning
the No. 7 seed in the 2023 Eastern Conference Playoffs.

Ahead of the matchup Atlanta is coming off a 120-119 win over the Orlando Magic on Nov. 9 in Mexico City, as Dejounte Murray landed the game-winning triple with 31.1 seconds left on the clock, marking the team’s fourth double-digit comeback win of the season . It’s the first time in the play-by-play era the club has had four double-digit comeback victories within the first eight games of a season.

In Thursday night win Oklahoma native Trae Young had a season-high 41 points, eight assists, four rebounds and three steals in 34 minutes of play. Young is just the second player in the NBA this season to record at least 40 points, five assists and three steals in a single game (Donovan Mitchell-10/27/23) and the first since De’Aaron Fox (2/24/23) to notch at least 41 points, eight assists and three steals in a single game. Young also became the only Hawk to register 41 points, eight assists and three steals in a single game. Young now owns 30 career games with 40+ points and 5+ assists, the most such games in franchise history.

Game Recap : Clint Capela opened the scoring efforts followed by Dejounte Murray from beyond the arc. Early in the first quarter (8:30) Miami took the 10-5 lead.

Jaylen Johnson counter attacked with a jump shot to cut the deficit to 7-10. Hawks defensive efforts was slowed by Miami, as offense stalled. Atlanta could not get anything going. At the end of the 1st quarter the Hawks trailed 24-41.

In the second quarter what started as a strong back and forth affair, soon became the Heat game to control. Even with Atlanta making a pair of threes, the Hawks trailed Miami by 9 points at the half.

Coming back from the half the team seemed to react to Coach Snyder half time message. Atlanta was able to slash the deficit to 10 points at 6:36 the score was 64-74. Trae landed a 3 to put the score within 7 points. However, it was in the fourth quarter Atlanta heightened the pace and had good ball movement but for every time Atlanta tried to cut into the lead, the Jimmy-less Heat would answer. Despite all momentum shifting to the side of the home team in the final minutes Miami would defeat Atlanta 117-109.

There was four Hawks players that scored in double digits. Trae Young led the team in scoring 27 points, 11(a), followed by Dehounte Murray who put up 23 points. Bogi added 15 points, while , DeAndre rounded off the scoring efforts with 20 points, 5 (r).

Atlanta head on the road to take on Detroit in the In-Season Tournament, at Little Caesars Arena for Game 1. Tipoff is at 7:00 PM EST.