The Miami Heat took Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks to the woodshed in Game 1, pulling off a dominant 115-91 win. The mission for them now is to go up 2-0. But will the Hawks allow Miami to do that? Or will Atlanta level the series before heading home for Games 3? Check out our preview below of Game 2 of Hawks vs. Heat 2022 NBA Playoffs series?
The Hawks will go as far as where Trae Young takes them, so it was no surprise they lost in Game 1 with Young shooting horribly. The former Oklahoma Sooners star scored just 8 points on 1/12 shooting from the field, including a 0/7 line from behind the arc. He simply couldn’t buy a basket, but it can’t be that bad for Young all the time. He is due for a good game, so expect him to be better in Game 2. If anything, the Hawks still found ways to get to the foul line a lot, going 23/27 from the free-throw line. Even Bogdan Bogdanovic went kaput offensively, going 0/8 overall. Just like what we said about Young, it’s about to be better for Bogdanovic, as it can’t get any worse than that for the Serbian. A bright spot for Atlanta in Game 1 was De’Andre Hunter, who scored 14 points on 6/8 shooting in the series opener.
The Hawks are 5-5 against the spread in their last 10 games overall.
The Heat looked like a championship team in Game 1. Miami really turned on the heat right in its very first game of this postseason, shooting 52.4 percent from the field, while holding Atlanta to an atrocious 38.7 percent shooting. Duncan Robinson exploded for 27 points off the bench, as he went crazy from deep. Robinson went 8/9 from downtown. He’s not going to be as hot every game, but he will continue to stretch Atlanta’s defense just enough to open spaces for Heat to attack inside. Miami outscored the Hawks in the paint in Game 1, 38-26, and a lot of those baskets were off assists. Kyle Lowry led the assist party with 9 dimes to go with his 10 points. Gabe Vincent came off the bench and recorded 7 assists.
The Heat, who had 35 assists to just 16 by Atlanta, are 4-0 against the spread in their last four home games.
