Jimmy Butler leads the charge as Miami wins Game 4

The Miami Heat showed their dominance and defeated the Atlanta Hawks in Game 4 to take a 3-1 series lead. Jimmy Butler continues to destroy the Hawks in this series as he finished with 36 points on 12-for-21 shooting to go with 10 rebounds, four assists, four steals, one block and ZERO turnovers. Incredible performance from the Heat superstar leading his team to a big win on the road.

Despite the final score, this game was pretty tight for the majority of the first half. It had the intensity you would expect from a playoff game. Miami was struggling to get any shots to go in and they shot below 40% from field for the majority of the first half, but they were able to take extremely good care of the ball as they had zero turnovers as a team at halftime. Luckily the Heat and specifically Butler turned it up at the State Farm Arena ending the first half on multiple runs to lead it 55-41 at the half.

After some competitive play from Atlanta in the first half, it felt like they couldn’t do anything right on the offensive end. While a lot of it could be contributed to a terrible game plan and execution from Atlanta, Miami’s defense was clicking on all cylinders and making life for Trae Young and the Hawks extremely difficult. The switches on Young were absolute perfection and no matter who had the assignment they took care of business. Young had another terrible performance as he finished with nine points on 3-for-11 shooting five assists and five turnovers. Just not what you would expect from the star that has received all the coverage in this series.

Enough about the Hawks, I really want to know how we’re all feeling about those Victor Oladipo minutes. He was a +28 in his 23 minutes in Game 4 and I know you can’t just look at the +/- to determine if a player had a great game, but that is a significant number. It means something was really working while he was on the floor and from what I saw his defense, ability to drive and playmaking stood out to me. His shot selection definitely needs to be much better if he wants to get major minutes moving forward, but he definitely provided the Heat with the energy they needed to get out of the funk they were in earlier in the game.

Unfortunately, this was another rough offensive performance for Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo. Herro easily had the worst game of the two as he had just 3 points on 1-for-8 shooting and just couldn’t get into any offensive flow in this one. For Bam, it was just another inconsistent game where he picked up early foul trouble and just didn’t get into a rhythm. Atlanta is not a good team, so the Heat could get away with these types of performances from them, but as we move on to the later rounds they are going to need to get their heads in the game.

Next, the Miami Heat will return to the FTX Arena for Game 5 on Tuesday, as they look to close out this series. There should be no looking ahead. The Heat need to respect their opponents and put them away for good. They are well coached and a veteran team, so I know they are going to bring the same intensity and likely end Atlantas season. See you guys then!