Heat oust Hawks; into NBA conference semi

Top-seeds Miami Heat have advanced to the NBA’s eastern conference semi-finals after clinching their series with the Atlanta Hawks 4-1.

Victor Oladipo scored 23 points and Bam Adebayo added 20 points and 11 rebounds for the Heat as they won game 5 in Miami 97-94 on Tuesday night.

The Heat won the series clincher without stars Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry, both of whom sat out the match with injuries.

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Tyler Herro scored 16, Max Strus scored 15 and Caleb Martin added 10 for the Heat.

Trae Young’s rough series for Atlanta remained that way: He finished two for 12 from the floor, scoring just 11 points. For the series, the Hawks’ guard shot 32 per cent against Miami’s swarming defence.

De’Andre Hunter scored 35 for Atlanta, which got 12 apiece from Kevin Huerter and Danilo Gallinari.

Hunter fouled out with 41.6 seconds left, Miami clinging to a three-point lead at the time. The Hawks got a stop, taking over with 29.2 seconds remaining, and retained possession after a missed shot from Gallinari went out of bounds off Miami.

The Hawks never got another shot off, time expired and Miami moved on.

Now the Heat get nearly a week off before facing either Philadelphia or Toronto in the conference semis. Game 1 will be Monday in Miami.

The Heat already knew they’d be without Lowry, who missed his second consecutive game with a strained left hamstring.

The surprise was Butler, who reported knee soreness to the team on Monday and didn’t see enough improvement to play on Tuesday.

Heat oust Hawks; into NBA conference semi
Independent Information