Heat escapes with critical double-OT win over Hawks. Takeaways and a playoff race update

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 117-111 double-overtime win over the the Atlanta Hawks (36-43) on Tuesday night at State Farm Arena to close its three-game trip at 2-1. The Heat (44-35) now returns to Miami to close the regular season with a three-game homestand that begins Wednesday against the Dallas Mavericks (7:30 p.m., Bally Sports Sun and ESPN) to complete the final back-to-back set of the season:

After Sunday’s costly loss to the Indiana Pacers, the Heat nearly suffered another bad loss in Atlanta. But the Heat managed to escape with a win after two overtimes.

“It was just a tremendous effort to have to overcome a lot of different things, down four, down six in the overtimes,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Our guys were exhausted. But sometimes that’s what it is. You just have to find a way to win and our defense down the stretch was as good as it can be.”

The Heat led the Hawks by as many as 15 points in the first half and held a 14-point lead with 10:05 left in the third quarter. But the Hawks closed the period on a big 28-14 run to tie the game at 80 entering the fourth quarter.

The Heat committed seven turnovers and shot 7 of 18 (38.9 percent) from the field during an ugly third-quarter showing.

Those turnover issues continued in the fourth quarter, as the Heat committed a total of 12 turnovers in the third and fourth quarters after just four turnovers in the first half.

The Heat also was outscored by a total of 15-2 in second-chance points during the third and fourth quarters. The Hawks closed the game with a 23-2 edge in second-chance points behind 17 offensive rebounds.

But the Heat was able to overcame all of that with the help of the Hawks’ suddenly cold shooting in the second overtime. Atlanta totaled just four points on 2-of-12 shooting from the field and 0-of-5 shooting on threes during the second overtime period

All of those missed shots allowed the Heat to score the first six points of the second overtime — on two free throws from Tyler Herro, a Herro jumper and a Haywood Highsmith runner — to pull ahead by six points with 1:35 left on its way to the victory in what turned into a war of attrition.

This came after the Heat missed a few opportunities to end the game a little earlier.

The Heat had a chance to end the game on the final possession of regulation, with the score tied at 101, but a seemingly botched possession ended with a 28-foot heave from Herro that wasn’t even close to going in.

The Heat also had a chance to win the game in the final seconds of the first overtime, but Jimmy Butler committed a turnover while trying to complete a pass to Herro with 6.7 seconds left. Dejounte Murray then missed what would have been a game-winning three for the Hawks as the final buzzer sounded on the first overtime.

But the Heat finally closed the door on the Hawks in the second overtime.

Herro scored a game-high 33 points for the Heat on 13-of-25 shooting from the field and 4-of-13 shooting on threes in his third game back from injury. He also recorded five rebounds and four assists.

Butler ended the night with 25 points, eight rebounds, nine assists and three steals for Miami.

The Heat also received an excellent performance from 20-year-old forward Nikola Jovic, who closed with 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field and 5-of-8 shooting on threes and eight rebounds.

Heat center Bam Adebayo was relatively quiet with 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the field, 2-of-2 shooting from three-point range and no free throws. He also committed five turnovers, but did contribute seven rebounds, seven assists, three steals and one block.

Murray scored a team-high 29 points on 31 field-goal attempts for the Hawks.

The double-overtime affair led to Herro playing a career-high 48 minutes, Adebayo logging a career-high 48 minutes and Butler finishing at a season-high 44 minutes on the front end of the Heat’s back-to-back, with another game on Wednesday against the Mavericks in Miami.

“We’ll be alright,” Butler said of the quick turnaround after Tuesday’s heavy workload. “Like I always say, don’t nobody care. We got a job to do on our home floor against a really good Dallas team. Buckle up, ice your knees, rest your back, whatever it takes and go get one.”

The good news is the Heat still controls its own destiny in terms of hosting the Eastern Conference’s first play-in tournament game. The bad news is the Heat’s chances of avoiding the play-in tournament remain slim.

With the Heat, Philadelphia 76ers and Indiana Pacers all winning on Tuesday, the Heat (44-35) remains in eighth place in the East standings. The Heat is a half-game behind the seventh-place 76ers (45-35) and 1.5 games behind the sixth-place Pacers (46-34).

The play-in tournament, which features the seventh-through-10th-place teams competing for the final two playoff seeds in each conference, begins on Tuesday just two days after the Heat’s regular-season finale on Sunday.

The Heat is guaranteed to finish no worse than No. 8 in the East, which means Miami will have two chances to win one game to qualify for the playoffs if it’s in the play-in tournament.

The No. 7 seed hosts the No. 8 seed in each conference in the first play-in game. While No. 8 at the moment, the Heat still controls its destiny to get home-court advantage for a potential No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in matchup.

That’s because the Heat and 76ers would both finish with 35 losses if they both win out, but the Heat would finish ahead in the East standings at No. 7 by virtue of holding a better conference record than the 76ers.

But cracking the top six in the East to avoid the play-in tourney won’t be as simple for the Heat.

The Heat did get a bit of help Tuesday, though, when the Orlando Magic fell to the Houston Rockets. The Magic sit in fourth place in the East at 46-33.

If the Magic drops two of its final three regular-season games (at Milwaukee Bucks, at 76ers, vs. Bucks) and the Heat wins its final three games, the Heat would finish as the No. 6 seed and avoid the play-in tournament.

Even if the 76ers also win out in this scenario, the Heat, Magic (if it loses two of its final three games) and 76ers would all finish with 35 losses and the Heat would win the three-way tie because the Heat would win its division based on holding the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Magic. The Heat would be the No. 6 seed because the division winner wins a tie with teams that don’t win their division.

“When you dream about competing in this association, you want these games to have this kind of meaning, context and consequences,” Spoelstra said. “If there aren’t the consequences, you don’t feel the emotion.”

With Duncan Robinson and Terry Rozier out due to injuries, the Heat opened Tuesday’s contest with a lineup that had not started a game together in more than a month.

The Heat went with a starting lineup of Herro, Caleb Martin, Butler, Jovic and Adebayo against the Hawks.

While the Heat has already set a new franchise record with 35 different starting units used this season, this is one that was already on that long list. Tuesday marked this lineup’s fourth start of the season and its first start together since Feb. 23.

It also marked the return of Herro to the starting lineup. After missing 20 straight games because of a foot injury and then playing off the bench in his first two games back, Tuesday was Herro’s first start since Feb. 23.

The Hero-Martin-Butler-Jovic-Adebayo lineup outscored the Hawks by one point in 18 minutes together.

As for the two starters who missed Tuesday’s game, it appears that Rozier is closer to a return than Robinson.

Robinson, who has started in 17 straight appearances, missed the game with a lingering back injury labeled as left facet syndrome. He initially missed five games last month with the back issue before returning to play in five games and then again being sidelined by the injury on Tuesday.

Rozier, who has started in 30 straight appearances, missed the game with neck spasms. Rozier, who played through neck stiffness but was clearly limited in Sunday’s loss to the Pacers, was initially listed as questionable for the Heat’s game in Atlanta prior to being ruled out about an hour before tip-off on Tuesday.

The Hawks were also short-handed, playing without Saddiq Bey (left knee torn ACL), AJ Griffin (right ankle sprain), Seth Lundy (left ankle soreness), Onyeka Okongwu (left big toe sprain) and Trae Young (left fifth finger torn ligament) against the Heat.

Jovic continues to be a revelation for the Heat.

Since Jovic became a full-time starter in mid-February in the middle of his second NBA season, he hasn’t looked back.

With Tuesday marking the 23rd straight appearance that Jovic has started, he has averaged 9.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and two assists per game while shooting 48.7 percent from the field and 41 percent on 4.3 three-point attempts per game during that stretch.

More importantly, the Heat has outscored opponents by 7.9 points per 100 possessions with Jovic on the court during those 23 starts.

In Tuesday’s double-overtime win, Jovic set a new career-high for minutes (40), tied a career-high for field goals made (8) and for threes made (5), and also scored more than 20 points for just the second time in his NBA career.

“I had to get things done,” Jovic said after Tuesday’s victory. “Whether it’s dribbling the ball or screening for Tyler or I had to attack, pass it. ... I’m going to do what they and what coaches want me to do.”

Jovic also was asked to play the entirety of both overtime periods, with his improved individual and team defense leading to more late-game minutes recently.

“Niko was fantastic tonight,” Spoelstra said. “I often have to remind myself that Niko is 20. But he’s getting better, he’s getting better by each month and you saw that tonight. That was winning basketball on both ends of the court.”

With Herro and Martin moving into the starting lineup because of the Heat’s injuries, the bench rotation looked a little different.

Guard Delon Wright received an opportunity to play on Tuesday, logging his first minutes since March 31.

Wright closed the win with seven points, two rebounds and two assists 21 minutes off the bench.

The rest of the Heat’s bench rotation against the Hawks included familiar faces, as Kevin Love, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Highsmith played in their regular reserve roles to complete the nine-man rotation. Love only logged six minutes, as Jovic played some of the backup center minutes when Adebayo was off the court.