Trae Young made a go-ahead runner in the lane over Jimmy Butler with 4.4 seconds left as the host Atlanta Hawks defeated the Miami Heat 111-110 on Friday to cut their deficit in their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series to 2-1.

Atlanta overcame a 21-0, third-quarter run by Miami that gave the Heat a 16-point lead.

The eighth-seeded Hawks, who are 21-3 at home since Jan. 17, will aim to level the series against the top-seeded Heat in Game 4 on Sunday in Atlanta.

Young finished with 24 points and eight assists. He made 6 of 14 shots, including 2 of 6 from 3-point range.

Butler, who scored 45 points in Game 2 on Tuesday, finished with 20 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists on Friday. However, he missed two key shots in the final 13 seconds. The first one led to Young’s runner in transition, and the second miss was the game’s final shot.

Both of Butler’s misses came off the front rim.

Tyler Herro led the Heat with 24 points, including 12 in the second quarter. Max Strus added 20 points for Miami.

Bogdan Bogdanovic was Atlanta’s second-leading scorer with 18 points. He also grabbed the rebound that led to Young’s winning hoop.

Miami starting point guard Kyle Lowry sat out the fourth quarter due to a lower left leg injury. He had six points and five assists in 23 minutes.

The Heat withstood a scare with 9:47 left in the first quarter as Butler stayed on the deck for a couple of minutes after crashing into Atlanta’s John Collins.

Butler, though, got up and did not miss any game time.

A suspicious package found outside Atlanta’s State Farm Arena delayed the start of the game by 55 minutes. The contents of the package were found to be nonexplosive.

Miami led 24-22 after the first quarter behind 11 points, five rebounds and two assists from Butler.

With 7:47 left in the second quarter, the Heat called timeout as Atlanta built its biggest lead of the series to that point, 37-31.

By halftime, Atlanta was up 61-54 as Butler was held scoreless in the second quarter.

Miami surged ahead in the third, leading 85-77 by the end of the period.

In the fourth, Atlanta tied the score 101-101 on Young’s three-point play with 3:33 left. The Hawks took their first second-half lead, 107-104, on Onyeka Okongwu’s three-point play with 1:41 left after the reserve forward grabbed a contested offensive rebound over Herro.

–Field Level Media

There have been plenty of boos in Salt Lake City when the Utah Jazz have faced the Dallas Mavericks in the playoffs over the years, including the time when Dirk Nowitzki referred to the “the bad city of Utah.”

Jazz fans were booing again Thursday night in Game 3 of this improbable first-round series, but this time the boos were aimed at their own team, which fell behind the Mavericks 2-1 after a surprising 126-118 Dallas win at Vivint Arena.

Falling behind by 17 points at home and then being outplayed down the stretch against a team missing its superstar didn’t sit well with the home crowd.

Donovan Mitchell, whose team hopes to tie the series back up Saturday afternoon in Game 4, didn’t seem offended by the boo birds coming out in his arena.

“It’s part of the game,” Mitchell said. “And we weren’t playing well.”

That’s been the case most of this series despite the fact that the Mavs’ leading scorer, Luka Doncic, has yet to play because of a strained left calf.

Mitchell finished with 32 points, but only scored four in the first half when Dallas jumped out to its biggest lead Thursday. And the Jazz haven’t been able to figure out how to defend this postseason’s unexpected star, Jalen Brunson, or the Mavericks beyond the arc.

A younger Mitchell might have booed himself if he’d been a fan of this Jazz team, which has been underwhelming the past two postseasons since racking up the best regular-season record in the 2020-21 season.

“I booed the hell out of the TV when I was a fan,” Mitchell said. “It’s not personal. There’s an expectation around us, it’s no secret about that — everybody expects us to take care of business, and we didn’t in the first half. So we got booed.”

It’s still questionable whether Doncic will be healed enough to play Saturday, nearly two weeks after injuring his leg against the Spurs. Dallas coach Jason Kidd said his young playmaker hasn’t suffered any setbacks and remains optimistic.

“He did great in the film session,” Kidd joked when asked for an update on Doncic’s status. “He participated. He’s in good spirits.”

The Mavericks will see how Doncic responds to Friday’s practice, in which he participated in 5-on-5 work, before making a decision on his availability. With Brunson, Maxi Kleber and other Mavericks having stepped up so well in this series so far, Kidd pointed out that Doncic’s health will be the determining factor on his return.

Brunson has been a revelation for the Mavericks in this series, having scored 96 points and leading Dallas two consecutive wins in Games 2 and 3 after a Game 1 defeat at home.

“We’re all on the same page,” Brunson said. “We’re all clicking. We’re all talking and communicating.”

Kidd is trying to keep his team grounded, though. This is the best of seven, not a first-to-two-wins series.

“I just told the guys we haven’t done anything,” Kidd said. “They won at our place and now we won here. We need to put this game behind us and figure out what we need to do better.”

Though they ultimately lost, the Jazz like the turnaround the team made in the second half of Game 3, when they gradually trimmed a 17-point deficit down to one in the fourth quarter. Part of that comeback came when Utah had its best defender, Rudy Gobert, on the bench and went small ball.

“I like what we did in the second half,” Gobert said. “I like how we came out defensively and the offense takes care of itself when we play with that intensity defensively. Now the question is for us: Can we have that intensity for 48 minutes?”

–Field Level Media

Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid plans to play through a suspected torn ligament in his right thumb, multiple outlets reported Friday.

Embiid was injured during Wednesday’s 104-101 overtime win in Game 3 over the Toronto Raptors. The five-time All-Star was wearing a brace on his right hand and thumb during Friday’s practice.

The club didn’t list Embiid on its Friday injury report and coach Doc Rivers wasn’t concerned. Rivers told reporters that Embiid was a full practice participant on Friday.

“We did a lot of stuff,” Rivers told reporters after being asked about Embiid’s brace. “We just don’t want anybody to hit his arm and all that so he was fine.”

Still, the team reportedly may opt to have Embiid undergo an MRI exam at some point. The MVP finalist didn’t speak to the media following Friday’s practice but said after Wednesday’s game that there was no chance he’s sit out Saturday.

“I don’t know exactly what happened,” Embiid said on the injury. “But I just started feeling pain and think I might have twisted it.”

Embiid knocked down the winning 3-pointer with less than a second left in overtime on Wednesday. He had 33 points and 13 rebounds.

Over the first three games of the series, Embiid is averaging 27.7 points and 13.0 rebounds.

The 76ers look to finish off a sweep of the first-round series on Saturday.

–Field Level Media