Tyler Herro had a game-high 30 points, Davion Mitchell buried three 3-pointers in overtime and the Miami Heat advanced into the NBA playoffs with a 123-114 road victory over the Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference play-in finale Friday night.
The No. 10 Heat, who began the four-team playoff-qualification tournament needing to win consecutive road games in order to advance, successfully followed up a 109-90 romp at Chicago in order to earn a first-round matchup with the East’s top seed, the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“The whole season has led up to this,” said Herro. “It wasn’t the exact perfect season, but we fought back. We had a 10-game losing streak. … We’re (10-4) since then. To come back says a lot about our organization. And we’ve got to keep getting better.”
The eighth-place Hawks failed to advance despite needing to win just one of two games. They were coming off a 120-95 defeat at Orlando on Tuesday.
After Trae Young hit a floater following a Herro 3-pointer to begin the extra session, Mitchell took over, bombing in a pair of threes to give Miami a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
“He’s a pit bull,” Herro said about Mitchell. “He’s been a tremendous pickup. I’m so glad we got him.”
Andrew Wiggins’ hoop gave Miami a nine-point cushion, after which the Hawks got no closer than three. Three-pointers by Herro and Mitchell in the final 1:41 iced the win, sending the Heat to the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season.
“They were, what, 5 of 6 on threes in overtime?” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “That’s hard to overcome. We had some breakdowns. You are always going to look back and wish that was different. But give Miami credit.”
Down by as many as 17 points early on and up by six in the fourth quarter, the Hawks needed two layups from Young in the final 52.3 seconds of regulation to force overtime.
His second basket, a driving layup with 1.3 seconds left, followed a missed free throw by Herro with 12.2 seconds left when the Heat had a chance to go up by three.
Wiggins misfired from the left corner at the regulation horn, extending the game an extra five minutes.
“I thought both teams played at a high level of competitiveness,” said Snyder. “I’m very proud of our guys.”
Half of Herro’s 30 points came on 3-pointers. He hit 5 of 10 from beyond the arc, while Mitchell went 4-for-9 as part of his 16-point effort off the bench.
Bam Adebayo chipped in with 17 points, a team-high 11 rebounds and five blocks, while Wiggins totaled 20 points to go with eight rebounds and a team-high eight assists. Kel’el Ware and Haywood Highsmith added 12 points apiece, with Highsmith completing a double-double with 10 rebounds.
Young had 29 points and a game-high 11 assists for the Hawks. Onyeka Okongwu (28 points, game-high 12 rebounds) and Dyson Daniels (11 points, 10 rebounds) also recorded double-doubles, while Georges Niang went for 20 points off the bench and Caris LeVert had 15.
–Field Level Media
