Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Tyler Herro’s return in Atlanta propels the Heat’s 14th road win

Tyler Herro returned in the Miami Heat’s first game after the All-Star break in the win against the Hawks in Atlanta, looking like he’d never left. His jumper was on target, and he dribbled past defenders for five shots in the paint.

“I feel good,” Herro said. “Just happy to be back here playing with my teammates.”

The Heat had payback on their mind for the Feb. 3 game, in which the Hawks blasted them on 2006 championship commemoration night. They built their largest first-half lead (15) mostly plowing into the lane while their deep shooting faltered. The Hawks sliced the advantage down to six going into intermission, and their biggest dent came from behind the arc, making seven treys in the second frame.  

The third quarter subsequently followed a similar script to the first, as the Heat briefly ran up a 17-point lead, courtesy of the bench’s intensity and accuracy. Still, the Hawks maintained a pulse as McCollum and Nickeil Alexander-Walker combined for six baskets on and off the dribble from short and long range. 

The visitors flashed a zone in the fourth quarter to throw off the Hawks’ rhythm, and they outhustled them up-and-down the court, plus cut them up in the half-court. The edge was eventually raised to 34 points, and the Hawks yielded before the final buzzer.

The Heat won 128-97. They scored 72 points in the lane, which ties their third-highest mark of the season.

Takeaways:

• The Heat started their back-to-back, while the Hawks were on the second night of theirs, plus the latter was dead-legged on defense. The former had seven double-digit scorers log between 10 and 24 points. On top of that, they did so much damage in the fourth quarter (41 points) that coach Erik Spoelstra found garbage time minutes for Nikola Jović, who has struggled this season. It was also their sixth win this season by 30 points or better (31).

• The Hawks’ offense broke, as they recorded 93.1 points per 100 possessions, good enough for the third percentile, per Cleaning the Glass. Onyeka Okongwu was their only starter to shoot better than 50% from the field (66.7), and their All-Star, Jalen Johnson, had a triple-double, but his abysmal shooting (27.3%) was a big help for the Heat.

• Pelle Larsson was the only Heatle to play 30 minutes or more (31), while the rest of the starters logged between 24 and 27.

• The Heat did a solid job on the glass, with eight players recording at least four rebounds. Kel’el Ware, specifically, was like a magnet for misses. The team preventing the Hawks from having successful second-chance opportunities was a difference maker, and so was punishing them for their 12 mistakes with 20 points off turnovers.

• McCollum has averaged 19 points on a 54.5 effective field goal percentage in his career against the Heat, which included eight nights of endless artillery strikes. Friday was not much different as he kept the Hawks from falling apart with 20 points on 50% shooting. 

• Herro was the team’s leading first-half scorer with 16 points on 62.5% shooting and later scored the back-breaking baskets in the fourth. Bam Adebayo also had an efficient dozen on close-range shots before intermission, which included two nice post-up moves. He didn’t keep it going, but the team didn’t need him to as the bench kept producing.