Trae Young struggled in the first two games of the NBA playoffs.
Didn’t really matter.
With game three on the line and the season hanging in the balance, the Atlanta Hawks wanted the ball in his hands.
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Young delivered, hitting a floater in the lane with 4.4 seconds left that gave the Hawks a 111-110 victory over the top-seeded Miami Heat after Atlanta overcame a 16-point deficit in the second half.
The Hawks cut the Heat’s series lead to 2-1.
“I didn’t have any doubts,” Young said. “I was able to get to the basket and get my floater.”
Jimmy Butler missed a jumper with 12.6 second left that could’ve given the Heat a three-point cushion. The Hawks grabbed the rebound and got the ball in Young’s hands, passing up the chance to call a timeout.
“No way I was calling a timeout there,” Hawks coach Nate McMillan said. “We got the rebound down by one with the ball in Trae’s hands. That’s a great chance to get in transition.”
Miami had one more chance to win it, but Butler missed again on an off-balance 3 at the buzzer with De’Andre Hunter in his face to give the Hawks a burst of hope in the best-of-seven series.
“The plan was get free, shoot it and make it,” Butler said. “I didn’t do it. I’ll make the next one.”
Game four is on Monday AEST in Atlanta.
P.J. Tucker led a 21-0 run in the third quarter that pushed the Heat to an 84-68 lead and seemingly on cruise control to a 3-0 lead. But Young and the Hawks would not let them get away.
The Heat also were dealing with an injury to point guard Kyle Lowry, who went out in the third quarter with a hamstring problem and did not return. He’ll undergo tests Saturday to determine the severity of the injury.
“I love that guy as our point guard,” Butler said. “If he’s with us, yippee ki-yay. If he’s not, someone will step in and do his job. We’ve got enough guys in that room to make up for him.”
After being held to eight points in Miami’s game one blowout and committing a career-worst 10 turnovers in game two, Young looked more like himself on his home court.
He had 24 points despite another stout defensive effort by the Heat, and turned it over just three times. And, of course, Young hit the shot that really mattered at the end.
“He’s the head of the snake,” teammate Delon Wright said.
Bogdan Bogdanovic added 18 points, Hunter 17 and three others scored in double figures to take some of the pressure off the star guard.
Coming off a 45-point effort in game three, the best playoff game of his career, Butler was held to 20 in this one and missed a prime opportunity to put Miami on the cusp of a sweep.
Tyler Herro led the Heat with 24 points, and Max Strus also had 20.
The Hawks led by 11 in the first half and were still up 68-63 when Hunter hit a 3-pointer with just under eight minutes remaining in the third.
That’s when Miami suddenly took control of a game that was delayed about 45 minutes after a suspicious package was found outside State Farm Arena before the game.
The Heat turned up their stifling defence, knocked down shots and silenced a sellout crowd that was used to seeing the Hawks win at home.
Tucker scored eight points in the six-minutes spree, but his best work came at the other end on Young.
Leaning on him so much that Young shoved him away in frustration on an inbounds play, the 36-year-old Tucker used every trick in the book to stifle just the second player in NBA history to lead the league in total points and assists.
SUSPICIOUS PACKAGE
Tipoff was delayed after the suspicious package was found outside Gate 2 of the arena, near a stairwell that provides access to a MARTA subway station.
Three gates were closed, preventing fans from entering while police, K-9 units and arena security cleared the area and investigated the package.
A bomb squad safely removed the package after it was found not to be explosive, clearing the way for the entrances to be opened.
Even with the delay, many fans were still bogged down in long lines outside the arena when the game began. But the place was hopping at the end of the night.