By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Serb sharpshooter Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 19 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter and with 3:15 left got Atlanta within 104-101.
But from there, it was Jimmy Butler’s night.
Butler scored a playoff career-high 45 points, including a personal 7-0 run down the stretch to decide the game, and the Heat held off the Atlanta Hawks 115-105 in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference first-round series.
Despite the Heat ending up with a 2-0 lead in the series, Bogdanovic registered a playoffs career high for the losing side which is still missing injured Swiss big man Clint Capela. Italian forward Danilo Gallinari was held to just two points.
Trae Young got his scoring touch back — he had 25 points in Game 2, after being held to eight in Game 1 — but also had a career-worst 10 turnovers for the eighth-seeded Hawks.
“I think the difference in the game tonight was turnovers,” Hawks coach Nate McMillan said. “You can’t have 19 turnovers in a playoff game and expect to win games. They scored 21 points off of our turnovers. A lot of those came in transition … and I thought that was the difference.”