The Miami Heat clips the Hawks wings as they advance to the 2nd round

Your Miami Heat took care of business at home and defeated the Atlanta Hawks 97-94 in Game 5 at FTX Arena. It was a pure dominant showing on the defensive side for the Heat as they once again suffocated Trae Young and the Hawks.

The Heat were without veteran leaders Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry for this close out Game 5 and they were still able to impose their will on this inferior Hawks team from start to finish. It definitely took Miami some time to get into their groove offensively, but luckily Victor Oladipo was in the starting lineup and playing some great basketball from the get go. He was attacking the basket aggressively and putting the Hawks on their heels every time he had the ball in his hands, which was a lot of the time with no Jimmy on the floor.

Though the first quarter was a low scoring affair, the Heat made sure to turn up the intensity in the second as they unleashed a full court press that completely dismantled the Hawks. Max Strus was the player that had the biggest impact during this stretch with multiple fast break finishes and a three pointer made. It had them leading 54-42 at the half

The second half was much of the same with the Miami Heat showing a dominance on the defensive end that the Hawks had no answers for. The problem for the Heat was that there offense couldn’t find much consistency either as they scored just 21 points in the third quarter. Even with the defense playing at a high level the Heat just didn’t have anyone they can go to in order to create offense. Bam prefers to play make, Tyler shows flashes but you aren’t putting the ball in his hands the whole game and Oladipo’s shot isn’t good enough to live with him taking it every time, so the Heat offense would get stagnant.

Atlanta was able to make this a game in the fourth as they were able to bring it within three points even with Young playing atrocious for this entire game. The Heat used a closing lineup of Oladipo, Herro, Strus, Tucker and Bam that was a positive lineup throughout this game. The dribble penetration of Dipo and Herro was able to create some much needed ball movement.

I definitely need to mention the game De’Andre Hunter put together tonight as he was Atlantas only source of offense down the stretch of this game. His size allows him to shoot over most players that would matchup to guard him and he finished with a game high 35 points on 11-for-21 shooting to go with 11 rebounds. Big time game from him as he nearly completed the comeback for the Hawks on his own. Unfortunately, he was called for his sixth and final foul with 41.6 seconds remaining in this game.

It needs to be said how absolutely garbage our late game execution on offense is. There is no movement involved, just a few pick and rolls for Dipo/Herro or it’s a Bam dribble hand off to Strus and the rest of the offense just reacts to what the defense gives them. Even with the Heat taking care of business at home and winning this series in five I’m still concerned with how that part of their game looks and that includes with Jimmy and Kyle in the lineup. However, while I am always going to be critical when it’s needed, this teams defense is what will get them a championship as it’s also what helped them ice this game and send Atlanta into the offseason.

Now, the Miami Heat rest up and wait for whoever comes out of the Philadelphia 76ers-Toronto Raptors series.