Without Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro — who will miss the next few weeks with a Grade 2 ankle sprain — the Miami Heat earned their fourth straight victory Saturday evening.
Behind a 26-point, 17-rebound, four-assist night from (super)star center Bam Adebayo plus a career night from rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr., the Heat won 117-109 over the Atlanta Hawks.
Adeabyo shot 9-of-12 from the floor and 8-of-8 from the charity stripe, in addition to one steal and two blocks. Jaquez had 20 points, converting on eight of his 17 field goal attempts with three rebounds, four assists and one steal. Kyle Lowry finished with 17 points, three rebounds, four assists and a steal on 4-of-6 shooting from distance.
Josh Richardson had his best game of the season, tallying 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting and 3-of-4 from 3-point range, corralling a pair of boards himself while finishing a team-high plus-15 (yeah, yeah I know single game plus-minus can be fluky, but Richardson was impactful!). Haywood Highsmith and Duncan Robinson finished with 11 points apiece, though the former recorded six boards, five assists, two steals and two blocks. Dru Smith was also very impactful on the defensive end, no matter if the Heat were in man or zone; he had nine points, two assists, three steals and one block on 4-of-8 shooting in 28 bench minutes.
Miami shot 48.8 percent after knocking down 15-of-22 to begin the first quarter, when they posted a season-high 41 points in the first quarter. It only shot 12-of-38 (31.6 percent) from 3-point range and 23-of-25 (92.0) from the free-throw line. The Hawks shot 43.2 percent and 39.1 percent–18-of-46–from beyond the arc, led by Trae Young and Dejounte Murray.
Young had 27 points and 11 assists on 7-of-20 shooting while Murray had 23 points, five rebounds five assists, three steals and one block on 9-of-16 shooting, including 5-of-9 from 3-point range. Bogdan Bogdanovic had 15 points on 5-of-12 shooting from 3-point range while DeAndre Hunter was Atlanta’s only other double-figure scorer, finishing with 10 points on 11 attempts.
Heat have now earned four straight victories over the Washington Wizards, Los Angeles Lakers, Memphis Grizzlies and now the Hawks after their 1-4 start. This marks their second consecutive road victory after losing their first three. Miami will play the third of four on the road Sunday against the Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs at 7:00 p.m. EST.
This is a developing story. Stay tuned for updates.
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We knew they would find themselves on the road.
Bam is him.
Juan Wick in Portland would have been a legend. So glad he’s getting his rep in Vice City instead. #HeatLifer
The surprise for me is Trae Young of the Hawks. How he ended up with 27 points still amazes me despite what seemed like an uninspiring effort from him.
He only shot 35% from the field but made 10 free throws.
mmmm.
This was an all round game from every player. In a previous post, I had said that if each bench player gave us 10-14 points every game the Heat will do well. And they did just that. Duncan 11 pts, Dry 9pts, JRich 16pts, Love 7pts. Duncan and JRich pts made up for Dru and Love to average out about 10 pts for each player. And Hi-may delivered as a starter with 20 pts. The bench players have shown that they are capable of doing that, what matters now is consistency and health.
Wow, this is a significant win on the road against a decent team without a lot of injuries. I am a bit amazed. We seem to be witnessing the passing of the heart of the team from Jimmy to Bam, or at least co-ownership of that status. We also may be seeing the emergence of a rookie into a meaningful role in JJJ. And, we are seeing important contributions from some former G Leaguers who really do belong here. And Kyle is playing well, giving us what we need from him.
Great win, very encouraging.
And JRich deserves some credit too.
he was just about perfect from the field hes always good on the d end
finals last year why amazed?
As you can tell by my comments, for some reason I tend to underestimate this team. To me, I thought last night was a definite loss. And last year, I thought we were hopelessly outmanned by the Knicks, much less the Bucks and Celtics. I am starting to see what several here already saw. My only explanation is Spo gets the max out of his team.
I used to think when we achieved above our heads, that it was mostly Jimmy and his immeasurable will to win. But, last night shows it’s more than that, more of an organizational thing.
Didn’t know this is b2b games. Spurs next. Uh oh Wemby! Need to put a body on that kid and make him work extra. Lets make it 5 straight 😁
wemby unreal rest of team lol.b2b suks,we have enough,lgh.battle of the 2 best coaches
The best game in the young season. They all played well, including JRich, which is really a pleasant surprise.
Bam is a monster and should be in conversation for a lot this year.
joker embid then bam the big 3
Two MVP contenders and Bam.. seems right to me.
that game was fun as hell.
I guess Bam is just a no-brainer all-star from now on? That dude was scoring like water, dominating the boards, and controlling the game on defense. And he didn’t even have a great, game, that’s just the boring everynight dominance he’s bringing to the table now. He can’t close out a fourth quarter on offense, but otherwise he can do everything.
So we’ve got 6 good young dudes that I basically consider rookies. Highsmith and Hi-May are both playing awesome. You also have Dru Smith, Jovic, Cain, and O-Robinson, who will probably have their moments later in the season when H&H struggle. I still wish the Heat had Dame or whatever, but it’s really fun having so much good young talent on a Heat squad.
If we’re comparing this group to the best Heat rookie classes of all time, they’re definitely top-5. We’re basically talking about (1) Wade/Beasley (2) Beasley/Chalmers (3) Winslow/J-Rich (4) Butler/Butler.
If we’re comparing Hi-May to the best Heat rookies of all-time, he’s probably also top-5. Right now my list is (1) Wade (2) Herro (3) C.Butler (4) H.Minor (5) Beasley. And to be honest, he reminds me of a young Caron Butler. If he can start making that corner 3, Spo won’t be able to keep him on the bench.
My last few asides: I like how Kevin Love was treating game-10 of the regular season like a preseason game. I bet he shows the rookies his championship ring sometime in November. I’ve seen like 3 or 4 Hawks games this season, and Tre Young is terrible. That team would be better without him. I also have to admit that Kyle Lowry has been awesome so far this season. reminds me of his first season on the Heat, when they were 1st in the East. Lowry and Love are a fun veteran twosome for such a serious franchise.
Oh yeah, Spo and Riley. Those guys are awesome! I’m sure some people are still upset we didn’t win the offseason, but I really love this team they’ve put together.
it seems when ty gets hurt we play our best ball.
Fast forward 2026, baring any trades, I see a starting core of Bam, Herro, Hi-May, Jovic/ HighSmith and Duncan/Dru.
Hampton, Herro, Jaquez, Highsmith, Bam, Dru, Jovic, Cain, ORobinson, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?,
No Duncan, Butler, Lowry, Love, Bryant, Richardson, Martin
But that is then…this is now! Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
GO HEAT!!!
The future starts today though.
Great defensive game the team has played this year! Every starter had at least one steal. Dru Smith had 3.
Bam is evolving into a much more complete player (even if he isn’t a big three point threat). Truly the team leader! He had 27 points, 17 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks.
Lowry (17 points), JRich (16 points) and Robinson (11 points) getting their “MoJo” back!
Dru Smith (9 points, 3 steals, 1 block) is filling in very well.
Highsmith (11 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and 1 block) is rapidly improving.
Kevin Love is good to have in a pinch. Better defense, playmaking and 3’s than Bryant Better match-up against smaller teams.
Jaquez is amazing for a rookie. Tenacious defender. The mistakes he’s making now he won’t be making nearly as much later. His 3 point shooting will only improve.
Overall, great win by the scrappiest team in the NBA! Onward and upward Sunday against the Spurs. Can’t wait!
GO HEAT!!!
Dru Smith and Highsmith are both such good defensive players. Plus Hi-May is a solid defender, especially for a rookie. Lowry and Bam are obviously great defenders. This is just a team that can lock people up!
The defense was the best it ever looked this year, smothering D, Trae had 27 points, but he had to work hard to get it. He was very inefficient from the field and had multiple turnovers.
Great win by our boys they stepped up to the plate and delivered a home run when no one expected them to.
Bam was the sht tonight,
In the words of one basketball legend, Bam was “unstoppable, unflappable tonight.”
He was “posting and toasting,” “duping and hooping,” ” moving and grooving’,” “out-muscling and out-hustling.”
Just a dominant game by Bam.
Jaquez is good, dude definitely deserves to play. Reminds me of a young Justise Winslow, good at everything except shooting.
Great move by spo playing Love in Thomas Bryant’s spot.
Much better spacing. I think it helped JRich find his game.
Bryant is seriously overrated, glad he took a seat.
Now only if spo could find some minutes for Jovic off the bench that would be great. Kid’s got game.
Agree with everything except the Bryant slander, that dude is awesome
At least sweet baby J’s jumper doesn’t look broken. We all knew Winslow was shooting on difficulty level 2000
I think he’s a good mid range shooter, but he just needs to dial down the 3 point attempts because that wasn’t his game I’m college.
bam is officially the best player on the heat.sorry jim your lack of attendance is unacceptable,good luck to u and shakira hope u had a healthy baby
I love beating the squawks lol. Great win without Jimmy, herro,and Caleb. Bam was a monster, I think this was his first time having back to back games with 25+ points and 15+ rebounds with crazy good efficiency. JJJ is the real deal and made bogdonovich look stupid crossing him to the floor. Definitely gonna be ROY, or will come close to it. Lowry was good tonight and a stabilizing force for us. Dru played his best game ever, was great on D, and made the most of his limited shoots, and made a clutch 3 near the end. Jrich finally got his breakout game, was fantastic on both sides of the ball, hopefully he keeps it up. Lastly the hack a Highsmith doesn’t work because HH is too good lol.
No one is gonna come close of taking down Wemby for ROY especially with the media already crowning him.
True, that was just wishful thinking on my part.
There’s a lot of good rookies this season. Not just Wemby, you’ve got Chet, the Thompson twins, that guard with the wild hair in Orlando. If Hi-May makes all-rookie, I will be impressed, and I think he might. Dru Smith is also playing like an awesome rookie. His defense is fantastic, but he needs to calm down on offense if he wants to stay in the rotation.
Dru is really a point guard.
The PnR he ran with Bam in the late 3rd/early 4th where he snaked it and patiently got to the rim opened my eyes.
Didn’t realize that was his game.
Don’t forget miller,Lively, and Hawkins. But yes I think he can make all-rookie 1st team and at least the 2nd team. Yes dru defense was great, even had the most steals on the team, his offense will only get better,and calmer with more pt.
That was fun! 4 straight Ws! 5-4! Burning these birdies again. Trae got 27?! Ok that’s fine I guess. Great performances from a lot of our guys if not all of them. Ok maybe not Cain lol. Birdy fans blaming refs as usual.
trey young is the james harden of the south