Johnson, Hawks extinguish Heat, 120-110

A third win in a row in the final home game of the calendar year.

The Hawks were hit with some unwelcome injury new before the game. Bogdan Bogdanovic was ruled out with a left lower leg contusion that has kept him out for two games before this Miami Heat matchup.

Dyson Daniels was a late add to the injury report with an illness, and he unfortunately was ruled out before the game as well. In his place in the starting lineup stepped Vit Krejci.

Atlanta used a great defensive play to find transition points early in the first quarter.

But the injuries made for a makeshift bench unit with Keaton Wallace running point, and that unit struggled to generate offense.

Trae Young and Jalen Johnson a bit later stepped out onto the court and sprung the Hawks’ attack.

Trae Young had seven assists on his own in the first period, including finding Garrison Mathews in the corner for this three-point And-1 opportunity.

After one quarter, the Hawks led 35-28 with two of those points of the buzzer beater variety as Larry Nance Jr. found a cut along the baseline for an easy lay-in. Both De’Andre Hunter and Garrison Mathews logged eight points off the bench in that period.

Within the first two minutes of the second quarter, Jalen Johnson picked up his third foul and had to take a seat on the bench. This was a bad sign for an already banged up squad.

But the Hawks maintained a solid five-point lead or thereabouts into the middle portion of the second quarter.

After a small Heat surge, the Hawks put their big guns back in the game and had a mini surge of their own. In the middle of that was this thunderous dunk from an unexpected source.

Jalen Johnson didn’t slow down despite the three fouls, and Trae Young didn’t forget how to pass the ball either.

At the half, the Hawks led 61-58. Johnson had 12 points, including eight of them in the second quarter after picking up those fouls while Trae Young led all players with 11 assists.

In the third quarter, the continued to ebb and flow with neither team taking a large lead at any point.

That is until Mathews and Hunter decided to fire away and put the Hawks up by nine.

The extra spacing from Hunter, Mathews, and Larry Nance Jr. helped open up the whole floor, and the Hawks maintained some separation heading into the final period.

After three quarters, Atlanta had a 93-84 edge, the biggest lead either team had up to this point.

Atlanta kept on the pressure, leaning on solid team defense and offensive rebounds to win the possession battle. Jalen Johnson also netted his 21st, 22nd and 23rd points on this triple in front of the Heat bench.

While the officiating was clearly getting under the Hawks’ skin, De’Andre Hunter took his frustration out some on this big four-point play.

Atlanta couldn’t shake the Heat, however, and so it was a dogfight heading into the final stretch of this one. Head coach Quin Snyder opted to close with his best shooting lineup: Trae Young-Garrison Mathews-De’Andre Hunter-Jalen Johnson-Larry Nance Jr.

The Hawks largely held up defensively — the biggest worry with a lineup like that — and managed to get some foul calls attacking the basket. They found themselves up 112-107 with two minutes to play.

From then. the Heat never really challenged the Hawks, clanking difficult jumpers down the stretch. In direct comparison, the Hawks executed for wide open buckets like this dump off pass to Nance.

The Hawks cruised to victory from there, 120-110.

Jalen Johnson had a monster 28-point, 11-rebound, 5-assist night. Trae Young added 11 points and 15 assists. De’Andre Hunter added 26 points off the bench, continuing his campaign for Sixth Man of the Year.

Atlanta will have a short turnaround and head north of the border to take on the Toronto Raptors tomorrow night.