Inside Duncan Robinson’s fourth quarter to remember, other takeaways from Heat’s win over Hawks

The Miami Heat has been among the NBA’s worst fourth-quarter teams this season. But the fourth quarter wasn’t an issue this time.

The Heat began the fourth quarter with a two-point lead and ended the fourth quarter with a 122-113 win over the Atlanta Hawks (12-16) on Friday night at Kaseya Center. The Heat (17-12) has won five of the last seven games, now standing five games above .500 for just the second time this season.

“Throughout the season, I feel like there are different obstacles you have to overcome as a team,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said. “Early on, obviously our fourth-quarter struggles have been our biggest challenge that we need to overcome. I think tonight was a good step in the right direction.”

Playing without star Jimmy Butler for the second straight game because of a strained left calf, the Heat outscored the Hawks 34-27 in the fourth quarter. It marked just the ninth fourth quarter that the Heat has won in the first 29 games, as Miami entered with the NBA’s worst fourth-quarter net rating this season.

Herro and Duncan Robinson led the Heat’s fourth-quarter effort, combining for 30 of the team’s 34 points in the final period.

But Robinson did most of the scoring, totaling 21 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter. He caught fire, shooting 6 of 7 from the field, 2 of 3 from three-point range and 7 of 7 from the foul line in the period.

Robinson became the fifth different NBA player to score 21 or more points in a fourth quarter this season, joining Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball, Sacramento’s De’Aaron Fox, Portland’s Anfernee Simons and Los Angeles’ James Harden as the only ones to do it.

Robinson is also just the fourth different Heat player in franchise history to score 21 or more points in a fourth quarter, joining Dwyane Wade, Kyle Lowry and Butler.

“It just sort of happens,” Robinson said when asked about his 21-point fourth quarter. “I thought I kind of let the game come to me a little bit. Then I just had some more opportunities in that second half. I tried to take advantage of them and be aggressive.”

Along with Robinson’s big fourth quarter, Herro scored nine of his team-high 30 points in the final period. Herro also closed the win with seven rebounds, two assists and one steal.

“You just see the benefits when both those guys are on the court together,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the Herro and Robinson pairing. “There’s a lot of things that can go wrong for a defense with those two guys. You’re going to overreact at some point because of their skill level and they did a lot of good things down the stretch on both ends of the court.”

The Heat outscored the Hawks by 10 points in the 12 minutes that Herro and Robinson played together on Friday. Before this plus 10, Herro and Robinson were a minus 3 in 139 minutes together this season.

“The difference is both of us are quote-unquote not ducks on the other end,” Herro said when asked about the viability of playing extended minutes alongside Robinson this season. “We’re able to play a little defense. I think that’s a credit to both of our hard work and dedication to the game. ... We’re both not the best defenders, but I think we’re able to prove that we’re at least average defenders. Spo was able to play us both at the same time.”

How did the Heat reach the game-deciding fourth quarter?

The Heat started fast, scoring the first nine points of the game on its way to building a 15-3 lead.

But the Hawks battled back behind 10-of-25 (40 percent) shooting from three-point range in the first half to enter halftime trailing by just two points. Bogdan Bogdanovic led Atlanta’s first-half rally with 20 points off the bench on 6-of-9 shooting from deep in the first two quarters.

The Hawks carried that momentum into the third quarter, beginning the second half on a 13-0 run to take their first lead of the game on their way to pulling ahead by 11 points just three minutes into the period.

The Heat then responded with its own big run, closing the third quarter with a 26-13 spurt to regain the lead and enter the fourth quarter ahead by two points.

That’s when Robinson took over to lead the Heat past the Hawks in the final period.

Along with Herro and Robinson’s big nights, Bam Adebayo totaled 18 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and two steals; Jaime Jaquez Jr. contributed 19 points, seven rebounds, one assist, one steal and one block; and Caleb Martin added 11 points, eight rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block to give the Heat five players with double-digit points.

Next up for the Heat is a Christmas Day matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday at Kaseya Center. The Heat owns an impressive 11-2 all-time record in Christmas Day games.

Five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Hawks on Friday:

The Heat continues to make threes at a league-best rate.

The Heat entered with the NBA’s top team three-point percentage at 39.4 percent and that success from behind the three-point line continued on Friday.

Miami shot 17 of 39 (43.6 percent) from behind the arc to defeat Atlanta.

Herro made a team-high seven threes on 13 attempts.

Robinson closed 4 of 7 from deep.

The Heat has shot better than 40 percent from three-point range in 12 of the first 29 games this season. Miami is 8-4 in those games.

The Heat is on pace to shoot better than 40 percent on threes in 33 games this season. The Heat did it just 17 times in 82 games last regular season.

Herro has picked up right where he left off before spraining his ankle.

Before spraining his right ankle in a Nov. 8 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, Herro averaged a team-high 22.9 points to go with five rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.4 steals per game while shooting 44.7 percent shooting from the field and 41 percent from three-point range in the Heat’s first eight games of the season.

Herro went on to miss 18 straight games. But even after more than a month away, Herro has not shown any signs of rust.

After Herro’s 30-point performance on Friday, he’s averaging 27.7 points per game on 31-of-56 (55.4 percent) shooting from the field and 12-of-24 (50 percent) shooting from three-point range in his first three games back from injury.

Herro has only played in 11 games this season because of the extended time he missed, but he’s producing career-best numbers in his fifth NBA season. Herro, who turns 24 on Jan. 20, entered Friday averaging career-highs in points, assists and steals while shooting a career-best percentage from the field and three-point range.

Even in a loss, Hawks star guard Trae Young continued his historic streak.

Young entered riding an impressive streak of five straight games with at least 30 points and 10 assists.

After recording eight points and nine assists in Friday’s first half, Young scored 22 points and dished out four assists in the second half to extend his historic streak to six games with at least 30 points and 10 assists.

Young closed the loss with 30 points on 10-of-22 shooting from the field and 7-of-13 shooting from three-point range, three rebounds, 13 assists and two steals.

Young joins Oscar Robertson as the only two players in NBA history to finish with 30 points and 10 assists in at least six straight games. Robertson did it twice.

There was an injury scare, but it appears that the Heat came out of Friday’s game unscathed.

The Heat entered Friday’s game with the the fifth-most missed games in the NBA this season due to injury at 89 games, according to Spotrac’s injury tracker.

It appeared that the Heat would have a new injury to monitor when Lowry limped to the locker room just seconds into the second half after tweaking his right ankle. But Lowry returned to the Heat’s bench a few minutes later and re-entered the game with 8:12 left in the third quarter.

Lowry, 37, finished the win with three points, four rebounds and three assists in 22 minutes.

But Heat was without one important rotation player on Friday. Butler missed his second straight game with a strained left calf that he suffered during Monday’s loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Heat was also without Dru Smith (season-ending knee injury), RJ Hampton (G League), Nikola Jovic (G League) and Cole Swider (G League) against the Hawks.

Butler remains day-to-day and his next opportunity to return will come on Monday against the visiting 76ers. Friday marked the sixth game that Butler has missed this season, with the Heat improving to 3-3 in games without him this season.

“As you figure this all out and get our rotations together and get guys healthy, you still can develop a talent of learning how to win,” Spoelstra said. “We have enough continuity. We’re used to having guys missing a game or two here or there. We’re not making any excuses for it.”

The Hawks were without two rotation players against the Heat, as De’Andre Hunter (right knee soreness) and Jalen Johnson (left distal radius fracture) sat out.

The Heat continues to beat the teams it should beat.

With Friday’s win over the Hawks, the Heat improved to 13-4 this season against teams that entered the day with a losing record.

Now, the Heat will have a bunch of opportunities to improve its poor record against quality opponents. Miami stands at 4-8 this season against teams that entered Friday with a winning record.

Seven of the Heat’s next nine games come against teams that entered Friday above the .500 mark, including Monday’s Christmas Day matchup against the 76ers at Kaseya Center.