By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The Atlanta Hawks managed to pull off a close win in Game 3 but the Miami Heat weren’t planning on giving them anything in Game 4 and the difference between the two sides was very clear with 110-86 on the scoreboard.
Miami’s signature gameplay shined in full light with steel defense, medium tempo on offense with limited turnovers, and Jimmy Butler taking over the reins.
Butler delivered 36 points along with ten rebounds and four assists while Bam Adebayo had 14 points and eight rebounds. PJ Tucker also added 14 and eight.
Meanwhile, Trae Young was held to just nine points and five assists, the same number of points as Danilo Gallinari. Bogdan Bogdanovic, who played some of his best basketball in the playoffs, stopped at four points. De’Andre Hunter was the only one to shine among the Hawks with 24 but it was far from enough.
“I haven’t been guarded like this … consistently, since high school,” Young said and that’s basically the story of the game in one sentence.
Coach Erik Spoelstra was far from surprised and it seems everything in the game went according to the locker room plan. Especially the turnovers control and especially with Kyle Lowry sidelined. Miami had no turnovers in the first half and that made for a franchise record.
“We have some gnarly competitors in our locker room that love big challenges,” Spoelstra said. “Everybody to a man in that locker room knew that we couldn’t have a 15-20 turnover game. That was going to ignite this crowd, ignite that team, so we had to be very coherent with our execution without our quarterback.”
Miami went up 3-1 and the home-court advantage returns to their side as they try to close the series in Game 5.