Hawks at Heat
The Miami Heat opened a home-heavy portion of the schedule with their most lopsided win of the season and they'll try to build more momentum when they host the Atlanta Hawks on Monday. Behind 25 points from Kelly Olynyk and a dominant performance on the glass, the Heat coasted past the Brooklyn Nets 117-88 on Saturday to get within one-half game of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
"We needed that," Miami guard Dwyane Wade told reporters of his team winning an easy one. "We needed to keep that lead. Obviously, at this time of the year everyone has games coming rapidly. You don't always want to be in a fourth-quarter battle." The win over the Nets came in the opener of a stretch in which Miami plays seven of eight at home, where it is just 13-18. One of those 18 losses came against the Hawks, who have taken all three meetings between the Southeast Division foes. Despite losing star rookie Trae Young to an ejection, Atlanta got past Chicago 123-118 on Sunday in a rematch of the teams' quadruple-overtime affair two nights earlier.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, FS Southeast (Atlanta), FS Sun (Miami)
ABOUT THE HAWKS (22-42): Young had just buried a long 3-pointer to push his total to 18 points early in the third quarter and taunted Bulls guard Kris Dunn, which led to the ejection, but his teammates more than picked up the slack. "Excited for our guys. Alex Len gets the start, plays 27 minutes gets 28 points, five threes," coach Lloyd Pierce told reporters. "Jaylen Adams steps in when Trae goes out and he gets his career high (with 14 points). DeAndre Bembry takes Trae's role, gets seven assists. So I'm excited for all those guys in the locker room." Young is averaging 20 points and nine assists through the first three matchups with the Heat.
ABOUT THE HEAT (28-34): Miami had no issues with Brooklyn despite playing without guard Goran Dragic (calf), center Hassan Whiteside (hip) and forward James Johnson (shoulder), who was active Saturday but never saw any action. "The guys have been playing great," Johnson told reporters of watching his teammates. "These last three games they've been playing outstanding, and you've got to keep the momentum going. You've got to keep exploring it and coach (Erik Spoelstra's) going to do his job." One reason Johnson was not needed is the continued solid play of Olynyk, who is averaging 22.3 points over his last four games.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Adams hit four 3-pointers Sunday after making a total of seven in his first 15 games.
2. Heat SG Dion Waiters is 3-for-16 from the floor over his last two home games
3. Hawks SF B.J. Johnson, who signed a 10-day contract Friday, hit all four of his shot attempts - including three 3-pointers - in his NBA debut Sunday.