{"id":229131,"date":"2026-04-13T00:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T00:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/229131\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T00:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T00:46:11","slug":"an-analysis-of-sunday-nights-miami-heat-atlanta-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/229131\/","title":{"rendered":"An analysis of Sunday night’s Miami Heat-Atlanta Hawks"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI \u2014 Observations and other notes of interest from Sunday night\u2019s 143-117 victory over the Atlanta Hawks<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u2013 The Hawks couldn\u2019t be bothered dressing out their rotation players in this one.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Such are the perks of direct entry into the playoffs with a top-six record.<\/p>\n

\u2013 For the Heat, it was somewhat of a tune-up.<\/p>\n

\u2013 So most played.<\/p>\n

\u2013 With their next game to be all or nothing.<\/p>\n

\u2013 And\u00a0here we go again<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Desperation time for the Heat while the elite get their rest (and the lottery-bound are off to Cancun).<\/p>\n

\u2013 That had Heat coach Erik Spoelstra pregame again addressing the play-in.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Or the Heat Invitational, as it is better known.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cWe\u2019ve pretty much said everything that needs to be said about it,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cWe\u2019re here, and now we just have to make the most of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 He added, \u201cThere\u2019s no other way other than just to absolutely go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Because there isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u2013 This isn\u2019t Dwyane Wade wearing down Purple Shirt Guy the last time the Heat faced the Hornets in the postseason.<\/p>\n

\u2013 This is one and done.<\/p>\n

\u2013 No time for plotlines.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Just on to the next one.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Or off to the lottery and the offseason.<\/p>\n

\u2013 So prudence for the Hawks, even if it meant citing players as out for \u201crest\u201d with at least five days off to follow for Atlanta.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Of sitting his rotation players Sunday. Hawks coach Quin Snyder said, \u201cthe focus for us has been on our guys going in postseason healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 And practicality for the Heat.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Spoelstra nonetheless downplayed Pelle Larsson being held out with a leg contusion sustained in Friday night\u2019s victory in Washington.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cPelle did as much treatment as he can,\u201d Spoelstra said, terming Larsson, \u201cday to day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Spoelstra added, \u201cso that\u2019s a good sign, but yes, it happened during the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 With Larsson out, the Heat opened with a lineup of Kel\u2019el Ware, Bam Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins, Davion Mitchell and Tyler Herro.<\/p>\n

\u2013 It was the Heat\u2019s 27th lineup.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Leaving Norman Powell with his sixth game off the bench this season.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Mitchell and Herro were back after missing Friday\u2019s victory in Washington.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Powell also was back after sitting out in Washington.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Jaime Jaquez Jr. was first off the Heat bench.<\/p>\n

\u2013 And then more early Keshad Johnson.<\/p>\n

\u2013 With Powell following with his entrance.<\/p>\n

\u2013 And Jakucionis making it nine deep before the end of the opening period.<\/p>\n

\u2013 With Nikola Jovic and Dru Smith again out, the Heat ended the season with just eight games with their entire roster being available.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Smith has been issued a pair of walking boots for his foot issue, but is hopeful of a postseason.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Before the game, Spoelstra spoke of guard Jahmir Young being upgraded<\/a> to a standard contract, and therefore becoming playoff eligible.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cHe had a terrific year for us in Sioux Falls,\u201d Spoelstra said of the Heat\u2019s G League affiliate. \u201cIf you look at some of his stat lines, they\u2019re amazing. He\u2019s a unique player because he\u2019s so shifty. You can\u2019t really get a handle on him, and in the games that he played, our offense looked very good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Young inherited Rozier\u2019s locker stall.<\/p>\n

\u2013 With the Hawks entering the postseason as one of the NBA\u2019s hottest teams, Snyder cited defensive rebounding.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cI think we kind of tried to just, after All-Star break, focus on some things that we felt would help us win the most,\u201d Snyder said, \u201cthat were most correlated to winning for our group, and defensive rebounding was one of them. Passing the ball has been something we\u2019ve just tried to pound all year long, and really the primary reason is because passing the ball ahead improves our pace.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Among those in the crowd was Fernando Mendoza, the likely No. 1 pick in the upcoming NFL draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 Observations and other notes of interest from Sunday night\u2019s 143-117 victory over the Atlanta Hawks: \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[114,123,125,2490,16151,124,2295,110],"class_list":["post-229131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-latest-headlines","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-heat","tag-miami-heat-blog","tag-miami-news","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}