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A disappointing end to a season that exceeded expectations.
The Atlanta Hawks suffered a season-ending defeat in the Play-In Tournament on Friday, losing to the Miami Heat in overtime by a final score of 123-114.
Onyeka Okongwu played a team (and career) high 49:34, and finished with 28 points (12-for-19 shooting, 4-for-8 from three), 12 rebounds, three steals and a block. Trae Young scored 29 points (9-for-22 shooting, 4-for-9 from three) and dished out 11 assists.
For the Heat, Tyler Herro led the way with 30 points (10-for-21 shooting, 5-for-10 from three), eight rebounds and seven assists. Bam Adebayo added 17 points (8-for-14 from the floor), 11 rebounds, two steals and five (yes, five!) blocks.
Things couldn’t have started much worse for Atlanta, as they committed two turnovers and went 0-for-3 from the floor on their first five offensive possessions, while also failing to come up with any stops on the defensive end. At the 9:35 mark of the opening frame, the Hawks trailed 10-0, prompting head coach Quin Snyder to call an early timeout to try and settle his players’ nerves.
The Hawks responded well out of the timeout, turning the defensive pressure up a few notches and making more of an effort to
push the pace, resulting in a 16-11 run of their own to cut the deficit to five.
Here, Herro misses the floater over Mouhamed Gueye, and the Hawks are off to the races after securing the defensive rebound. Young hits Risacher in stride for two points plus the foul.
On the very next possession, Young jumps the passing lane then nails the 30-footer in transition.
The play below occurred after a Miami score, but Atlanta’s emphasis on pace is evident once again. Young blows by Davion Mitchell, gets two feet in the paint with
18 seconds on the shot clock, then finds the cutting Okongwu for an uncontested lay-in.
Yet, though this was an encouraging response from Atlanta after such a dreadful start to the game, they were unable to sustain this momentum over the rest of the period and trailed 33-24 at the end of the first quarter.
The biggest difference between the two sides in the first quarter was evident in their field goal percentages – with Atlanta shooting just 9-for-25 (36%) from the floor, including 1-for-10 from three, and Miami shooting 14-for-26 (53.8%) from the floor and 3-for-8 from three – a problem which persisted in the second quarter.
Though both teams scored 29 points in the second, seeing as Atlanta took nine more shots* (26-17) in the frame, it was quite shocking that the Hawks’ couldn’t make a dent in the deficit and put themselves in a more favorable position at halftime.
*The Hawks did take four fewer free throws
Atlanta were a +4 on the offensive glass in the second quarter, and turned the ball over three fewer times, yet due to the fact that they shot just 10-for-26 (38.5%) from the floor (4-for-11 from three), while allowing the Heat to shoot 9-for-17 (52.9%) from the floor and 4-for-10 from three, so the deficit remained nine at the break.
from nba.com
I included the first half shot charts for both teams above – not so pretty for Atlanta.
The Hawks really struggled to come up with stops off of their own missed shots in this one, a problem that was exacerbated in the first half given how poorly the Hawks’ shot the ball.
Per pbpstats, Miami scored
1.21 points-per-possession off of Atlanta’s missed field goals, averaging
10.9 seconds per possession on these plays – taking a page out of the Hawks’ playbook, if you will.
In the first quarter, Young misses a floater, and before you can say “transition defense”, Wiggins is at the basket, dropping in an easy lay-in.
At the start of the second, Niang gets cross-matched onto Adebayo, and Bam takes it right at him for a close-range bucket.
On this second quarter possession, Young gets cross-matched onto Herro in transition. Kyle Anderson points out the mismatch, and Herro receives the ball in the middle of the floor with Young guarding him. Daniels shades over to help, and Haywood Highsmith is left open for a catch-and-shoot triple.
After the halftime break however, Atlanta began to find their groove on both ends, and an 11-5 run to open the third quarter (sparked by some impressive defensive effort) whittled Miami’s lead down to 3.
At the 10:00 mark, Okongwu picks Herro’s pocket then converts the transition lay-in on the other end.
On the next defensive possession, Mouhamed Gueye made his presence known with an incredible close-out and block on the Burks corner three.
Miami corrals the offensive board, but Young does an excellent job not letting Wiggins turn the corner after his man sets the ball screen, resulting in an empty possession for Miami.
After a Gueye three on the other end, a Daniels steal on the following possession ends up in an Okongwu lay-in off of the pretty feed from Young.
Unfortunately for the Hawks, this success was short-lived, and a 6-0 Miami run out of the timeout brought the deficit back to nine, undoing the Hawks hard work from earlier in the quarter.
On this possession, Young misses a pull-up three, and Mitchell wastes no time getting down the floor for a transition score.
A few possessions later, off a Risacher missed three, Gueye and Okongwu both think they’re guarding Adebayo, leaving the paint wide open for a Wiggins slam.
After another Risacher miss, Bam finds Ware with a beautiful lob pass to increase the Heat lead back up to nine, forcing Snyder to call for time.
The remainder of the quarter had a classic playoff basketball feel to it. With both teams locking in defensively, both offenses slowed down and neither team was able to gain an edge. Heading into the fourth quarter, the Heat’s lead remained intact.
Trailing by nine with their season on the line, Atlanta had their work cut out for them going into the fourth, and the way they responded to begin the quarter was spectacular. The Hawks dominated the first seven minutes of the period, outscoring Miami 20-7 to take a 98-92 lead with 5:07 to go.
Beginning at the 11:08 mark, Terance Mann cans the catch-and-shoot three off the LeVert drive and kick (shoutout Niang for the screen).
On the following possession, Niang walls off Anderson’s spin move.
Then, Young wastes no time pushing the ball up the court, and is left wide open for a long-bomb that cuts the deficit to three. Timeout, Spo’.
Out of the timeout, Tyler Herro hits a tough mid-range jumper after Bam beats Okongwu to the offensive rebound, however Dyson is quick to respond with a big time catch-and-shoot three off of a broken possession for Atlanta.
Both teams traded misses on the next few possessions, before Terance Mann sent State Farm Arena into a frenzy with a transition lay-in to tie the game at 88 with 8:00 left to go.
Feeding off the crowd’s energy, Trae Young came up with a few memorable possessions in a row. On the following play, he strips Mitchell on the drive to the hoop before getting his hands dirty by diving on the floor in an attempt to save the loose ball.
Young’s teammates as well as the State Farm crowd loved this one. Bam would throw it away on Miami’s inbounds play.
On the next Hawks’ offensive possession, Young goes to work isolated against Herro, hitting him with the filthy step-back three to give Atlanta the lead.
After a difficult Wiggins mid-range make on the other end, Daniels and Adebayo traded baskets before this brilliant three-play sequence from Okongwu put the Hawks’ up by 6 with just over 5:00 to go in the quarter.
On the possession below, with Atlanta ahead by one, the Heat dare him to shoot the top of key three and he confidently splashes it.
Then, on the very next play, he gets a hand on Herro’s pass to the rolling Adebayo, causing a turnover, then finishes with authority on the other end, forcing Miami to call another timeout.
For a player who had played in all but 3:26 of game-time up to that point in the night, the ability to come through when the stakes are highest is special.
Unfortunately, a 7-0 run for Miami out of the timeout put the Heat back in control with just over 3:00 left to play.
Out of the timeout, Mitchell nails the pull-up three with Young opting to go under the Wiggins screen (Mitchell had shot 1-for-3 from the perimeter in the game up to this point).
After Atlanta came up empty on their next two possessions, Tyler Herro hit a late shot clock middie to cut the Hawks lead to one.
A LeVert miss on Atlanta’s next possession gave way to another Herro pull-up, which he drained to put the Heat back up by one, setting the stage for an enthralling finish to regulation.
The two teams traded baskets on the next couple of possessions before Herro finally blinked, coming up short on a floater attempt with under 0:40 seconds left to play, giving the ball back to Atlanta with a chance to take a late lead, down by one.
Atlanta had two timeouts left, and could have used one here to set up a better look, but instead opted to go freestyle, resulting in one of the most crucial possessions of the game ending in a Niang floater.
To be clear, this isn’t a terrible look. Niang had it going on the offensive end in this one, and had shot 50% or better from the mid-range in each of the past three seasons (including this one). That being said, he came up short, opening this possession up to criticism – fair or not.
Down one with less than 0:24 seconds remaining, the Hawks were forced to play the foul game and got lucky when Herro missed the second of two free throws, giving them a shot to tie the game with a two or win the game with a three on their final possession.
After their first inbounds play went nowhere, the Hawks called a timeout and went to their back-up play, resulting in a game-tying drive and score for Trae Young, sending the game to overtime.
It’s good to see that ‘Ice Trae’ still has the clutch gene when it matters.
Unfortunately for Atlanta, after spending the second half scratching and clawing their way back into the game, overtime is where things went awry.
Atlanta scored just eight points on nine possessions, shot just 3-for-7 from the floor (2-for-4 from three) and turned the ball over three times. While it would, of course, have been nice shoot better in overtime, it was really the turnovers that killed them on the offensive end.
On Atlanta’s first possession of overtime, Young spots a crack in the defense, whips a pass to Terance Mann, but Bam Adebayo grabs Mann’s arm, restricting his movement and the possession ends in a turnover. This is just a really unfortunate no-call.
A minute later, with the Hawks trailing by four, Young commits a travel while trying to plant his foot driving on Mitchell.
Then, on Atlanta’s very next offensive possession, trailing by seven with 3:00 remaining, Mann simply bowls over Mitchell before the Hawks can even get their play started.
Just a brutal sequence on offense to kick off overtime, with the Hawks turning it over on three out of their first four possessions, putting them at a massive disadvantage.
Meanwhile Miami, who shot just 4-for-18 from the perimeter in the second half, shot lights out in overtime, going 5-for-6 from three-point range en route to a surreal,
170 offensive rating in the 5:00 overtime period.
Herro nails the first one at the 4:16 mark after the drive by Mitchell collapses the defense.
On Miami’s next possession, Mitchell takes advantage of Trae going under the Adebayo screen, and hits a big time shot to put Miami up by four.
On the next Miami possession, Herro gets switched onto Okongwu, dances with him at the top of the key, then whips a pass to Mitchell in the corner for a catch-and-shoot three to put the Heat up by seven.
Still, despite the situation looking dire, the Hawks’ didn’t just roll over. Back to back threes from Okongwu and Young cut the Hawks’ deficit to three with just under 2:00 remaining – with Young’s three (below) sure to make its way onto a Youtube highlight reel at some point.
Miami’s next possession was the backbreaker though. Wiggins drives on Terance Mann, but Mann beats him to the spot, forcing Wiggins into a behind the back crossover. Dyson Daniels — the
NBA steals leader — is waiting for this move, and he takes the calculated risk to help off of his man (Herro) to try and pluck the ball from Wiggins and create a transition opportunity for Atlanta going the other way.
As you can see, Daniels’ swipe at the ball was inches away from connecting, but it didn’t, and Wiggins noticed Herro standing wide-open, above the break, waiting to hit the three that would put Atlanta in a six-point hole.
If anyone is upset at Dyson for doing this… they can go kick rocks. Dyson has earned the right to take this risk with the way he’s played on the defensive end all season long, and while it’s unfortunate that he was caught out of position on this occasion, it’s still a risk worth taking for the “Great Barrier Thief” nine times out of 10. This play was not the reason they lost.
Atlanta still had a few chances to make this one interesting in the final two minutes, but were unable to convert on a few decent looks – the best of which was this LVert catch-and-shoot opportunity that would’ve cut the deficit to three with 1:00 remaining, but he fell short.
If Herro’s three at the 2:00 mark was the backbreaker, the following Miami possession was the nail in the coffin. Mitchell is isolated against Young, and pulls up for three with 0:40 seconds to go. The shot falls short, but Mitchell is the first one to the ball, snatching it away from Young, and kicking it out for another bite at the apple.
The ball finds Mitchell again, and he makes no mistake the second time, hitting Miami’s fifth three-pointer of the overtime period to send Atlanta packing.
Lastly: the true play of the night
Trae and Davion going at it, and Young continues to dare Mitchell to shoot it
He does, knows it’s short, and follows his shot
Rebound, kick-out, re-position
Ball finds energy, dagger
pic.twitter.com/tRkIhzgC8Y
— Brady Hawk (@BradyHawk305)
April 19, 2025
On the whole, though the three turnovers they committed in the overtime period really hurt them, I think the Hawks can pin this loss on their first half shooting performance.
They posted an offensive rating of just
101.9 in the first 24 minutes, shooting 19-for-51 (37.3%) from the floor and 4-for-21 (23.8%) from three. Miami didn’t have trouble turning Atlanta’s misses into easy transition opportunities, scoring
1.21 points per possession (PPP) on these possessions, relative to just
1.06 PPP on possessions that began off of a made field goal.
Rookie Zaccharie Risacher had a game to forget, as the 20 year-old shot 1-for-8 from the field in the first half, and finished the contest with three points on 1-for-11 shooting (0-for-7 from three) in 15 minutes.
Though Trae Young came alive in the second half, he struggled mightily in the first half and bears some of the responsibility for the Hawks’ slow start. He had 12 points, five assists and two turnovers at halftime, but he shot just 2-for-11 from the floor and 1-for-4 from three, with Atlanta being outscored by 12 points in his 19 minutes of first half action.
On the bright side, while we’ve talked about Okongwu’s monster game above, it’s also worth shouting out the performances of Georges Niang and Caris LeVert, who were both solid off the bench.
Niang finished as Atlanta’s third-leading scorer in this contest, finishing with 20 points, four rebounds and four assists – a nice rebound from his disappointing showing against Orlando on Tuesday. Meanwhile LeVert added 15 points, seven rebounds and six assists in 37 minutes of action, and while it would have been nice if he were a touch more efficient (LeVert shot 6-for-15 from the floor, 3-for-9 from three), he provided a spark off the bench when Atlanta really needed it.
Dyson Daniels finished with a double-double, 11 points and 10 rebounds, to go along with four assists and three steals. He shot just 5-for-13 from the floor (1-2 from three) with the majority of his looks coming from inside the arc.
All in all, It was a disappointing end to a season where the Hawks’ overachieved on multiple different levels, and though it would have been nice to see this group be rewarded with a small taste of postseason success, it was not to be, and they will have to take this disappointment into the offseason and use it as motivation for the 2025-26 season.
Quotes
Postgame, before answering any questions about the game specifically, a visibly disappointed Quin Snyder
spoke at length about the character of his team, and how proud he was of his players for the way they handled adversity this season.
“Guys just kept grinding. We weren’t perfect, we didn’t play well all the time, but there was a commitment from guys individually to improve. I think you saw that take place over the course of the year, no matter who was in, who was out, there was a mindset about us getting better. So to have a team compete the way they did tonight, and understand that we want to keep getting better.
I did want to really articulate how proud I am of this group, and the way they’ve stuck together, and the way that they’ve competed throughout the entire year.”
Speaking about what sparked the team’s fourth quarter run, Snyder discussed the importance of getting stops, playing fast and sharing the ball:
“Every team plays a slightly different style… In our case, being able to get stops is really important because it allows us to get out and run, and when that didn’t happen early [tonight] – and often times it doesn’t happen as much as you want – the perseverance you have to have during those stretches is really important in order to come back. Particularly when a team is making shots, making tough shots, you can’t let those things deflate you. We talked about that as being competitive endurance, just trying to compete on every play during the course of the game, I think that’s what we saw from those guys. Defensively we have to be unbelievably dialed in, from a personnel standpoint there’s a certain way we have to play defense, just like there’s a certain way we have to play offense. Every year is a bit different.
“But the biggest thing for me was the way we passed the ball, the way we shared, and that’s something that’s kinda unique into itself, a team that has that trust in one another is a team that can continue to build. We got some younger guys, and older guys, they’re hurting right now, and that’s a good thing. You want to feel that as much as anything because it’s indicative of how much you care and that’s what everybody could feel tonight.”
On Okongwu’s ‘Iron Man’ performance (28 points, 4-for-8 from three, 12 rebounds, and four ‘stocks’ in 49:34 of action) Snyder said:
“It was clear that Onyeka needed to match up with Bam, and we wanted to use our timeouts in order to rest him, as opposed to getting him out of the game – even if it’s just for a minute or two – because sometimes, without using a timeout you have someone sitting at the scorers table for a while. So that was something that was clearly really early in the game that we wanted that matchup, and then obviously the way he played in addition to that certainly was affirming.
“He’s a player I really appreciate having the chance to coach. There’s a glow to him that just elevates people. He’s one of those guys that’s a great teammate. And to see him with the level of focus in this second half of the season… he’s one of the guys that I feel can continue to get better and you can see his confidence growing.”
Speaking postgame, Trae Young chalked the loss up to shot-making, saying:
“It came down to a couple more made shots. That’s really what it came down to. Both teams competed hard, it was a hard-fought game… you gotta give ‘em credit. Some of their guys that don’t usually be making shots hit a couple of shots tonight. Yeah so you gotta give ‘em credit, they made a few more shots than us, but I thought we fought hard.”
On playing through adversity, Young said:
“We’ve been playing through adversity from day one since the beginning of the season and just dealing with injuries and things like that. I mean [Onyeka Okongwu] had to go out and play 49 minutes tonight. That’s not easy for anyone in this league and you gotta give him credit for the way he played with how many minutes he played… that’s tough for him.
But we’ve had to battle injuries for our bigs all year, so I’m just proud of the way we fought all throughout the year, especially ‘O’ the way he battled tonight, played almost 50 minutes, that’s not easy especially against that team so I’m just proud of all my guys.”
When asked how he would assess the season, Young said he was disappointed with missing out on the postseason:
“We all look at the season differently. For me, personally, not making the Playoffs is a failure for me – no matter who’s out there. No matter how much adversity with injuries we had to face. I still feel like we had a good enough group to make the playoffs and at least go out there and compete. Nobody looks at us like a title contender, for me it’s all about how we can get better every day. That’s something that was told to me before the season started that I needed to focus on, because people know how much I care about winning. If you really, really know me… that’s all I care about.”
Onyeka Okongwu gave a more optimistic response postgame when asked about his thoughts on how successful the season was, saying:
“You know, it’s tough. I feel like you’ve seen a lot of growth in Zaccharie throughout the whole year. Me. Dyson. Even Mo. I know we didn’t go to the Playoffs but to see those guys blossom into the players they are now. Can’t do nothing but be proud of them. I’m so proud of these guys. They kept their heads up, they’ve shown they’re growth on the court and even though we didn’t go to the Playoffs, I look forward to seeing them grow more, blossom throughout the summer and being ready for next year.”
“I know we didn’t go to the Playoffs but I wouldn’t call it a failure because I got to see the growth of the young dudes on the team.”
On the how he views the future of the franchise, Onyeka sounded optimistic:
“For me thinking about it, it’s only up from here. I just said the guys I just mentioned and we get Jalen Johnson back next year – here’s our other star on this team and… just be ready, god willing we’re all healthy next season. We’ll be ready to go from the start.”
It’s been a pleasure bringing you all Hawks’ content this season. Now, it’s time to enjoy the rest of the NBA Playoffs and start prepping for the draft and free agency.
Until next time…
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