The Hawks met the Heat in State Farm Arena for the biggest sports game happening in downtown Atlanta tonight.
Miami largely started their expected opening day lineup with both Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware in the front court and new addition Norman Powell in the backcourt. Atlanta, however, gave essentially all of their heavy hitters the night off.
Tonight’s starting lineup:
PG: Keaton Wallace
SG. Vit Krejci
SF: Jacob Toppin
PF: Asa Newell
C: N’Faly Dante
Early on, Keaton Wallace and Vit Krejci created early
offense for the makeshift group.
Lamont Butler — who was officially re-signed earlier today along with Deivon Smith and newbie M.J. Walker — came on later and made an instant impact with a steal and a quick trigger corner three among his early contributions.
But it was rookie Asa Newell that provided the acrobatics for the Hawks in the first quarter.
A lot of these players will be future College Park Skyhawks, but they didn’t play that way against essentially Miami’s regular season rotation minus an injured Tyler Herro.
The inspiring play — like this emphatic Eli N’Diaye transition block — built the Hawks a 35-24 advantage after one quarter.
In the second quarter, it was more of the same with Atlanta outhustling the Heat for loose ball. There were rookie mistakes aplenty, but the effort was always present.
But the offense hit the skits in the middle portion of the second quarter, and Miami pulled back into a virtual dead heat.
But key contributions from Asa Newell kept the Hawks in this one until the whistle blew for the halftime break with the sides knotted at 54 apiece.
It was a closer affair to begin the third quarter, with Lamont Butler beginning the half at point guard instead of Keaton Wallace. He got loose for a bit and drilled some early buckets.
The defensive intensity picked up as well as the unheralded players combined to force a 24-second violation at one point.
After three, the score was 76-70 good guys.
Atlanta kept up the fight, looking to seal the game and move to 2-1 in the preseason. One thing preventing them from doing so: shooting below 30% on their threes — on high volume nonetheless — in the game to this point.
Jacob Toppin was a big reason the Hawks padded their lead down the stretch of this one. His ability to create off the bounce was too much for the Heat.
With the score at 102-100, the Hawks needed one last stop to ice the game. Unfortunately, the Heat got a runner to fall and the Hawks couldn’t answer with 3.9 seconds left, so overtime basketball it was.
In overtime, the Hawks finally put Miami away after a late Caleb Houstan triple gave them the 119-118 victory.
Toppin came alive late to lead the Hawks with 26 points, nine rebounds and five assists. Asa Newell added 19 points and eight rebounds. The hero Houstan had 21 points on 5-for-8 shooting from three and Lamont Butler contributed across the board with 18 points, six rebounds, five assists, and three steals.
The Hawks finish their preseason slate on Thursday against the Houston Rockets.
