Hawks hold off Heat 116-105 in Play-In Game, grab No. 7 seed in East

MIAMI (AP) —Quin Snyder’s bags were packed in February for an overseas trip. Hewas going to spend time with some friends and family, see somecoaches he’s gotten to know over the years.

Then theAtlanta Hawks called with a job offer, to bring him on ascoach.

And nowSnyder’s bags are packed again — for the playoffs, starting with atrip to Boston.

Trae Youngscored 25 points, Clint Capela grabbed 21 rebounds and the Hawksearned the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs by beatingthe Miami Heat 116-105 in a play-in tournament game Tuesdaynight.

“Our guys aretrying to be the best version of ourselves at the end of the year,”Snyder said. “The year’s not over. So hopefully we can take thisand continue to build on it. It’s one game — but it was ourgame.”

DejounteMurray added 18 points for the Hawks, who avenged a five-game Round1 loss to Miami last season and earned an East first-round matchupwith Boston that will start Saturday.

The Hawks were in total control against theHeat and advance to the playoffs 🔥Trae Young: 25 PTS, 8 REB, 7 ASTClint Capela: 4 PTS, 21 REB, 2 BLKDejounte Murray: 18 PTS, 6 AST, 5 REb pic.twitter.com/bDdWcMiIxb

Kyle Lowryscored 33 points — his highest-scoring game in his two Miamiseasons — for the Heat, who will host either Toronto or Chicago onFriday to decide the No. 8 seed and a spot against top overall seedMilwaukee in Round 1. The Raptors and Bulls play Wednesday; thewinner of Friday’s game opens the series against the Bucks onSunday.

Tyler Herroscored 26 for Miami, and Jimmy Butler finished with 21.

“Come Friday,we have to play the legit exact opposite of how we played tonight,”Butler said.

For theHawks, four reserves — Saddiq Bey, Bogdan Bogdanovic, OnyekaOkongwu and Jalen Johnson — combined for 53 points.

The Hawksimproved to 3-0 all-time in play-in tournament games; that’s thebest mark in the league, one that New Orleans can match when itplays host to Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.

And theyearned this one on the boards. Atlanta outrebounded Miami 63-39,including 22-6 on the offensive glass that keyed a 26-6 edge insecond-chance points.

“We allunderstand the moment and the time of year it is,” Young said.“Credit our guys for being locked in, ready and focused on the gameplan.”

The Hawkstook two timeouts in the first 3:53 of the third quarter, as mostof what was a 24-point lead with 2:37 left in the first half —63-39 Atlanta was the margin — got whittled away, and fast.

Miami cut themargin to 15 by halftime, then opened the third quarter on a 16-6run. Add it all up, and it was a 27-8 run in about 7 minutes ofplay to get the Heat within 71-66.

But the Hawkshad an answer then, and every other time the Heat made a run. TheAtlanta lead was 13 again going into the fourth, and when Miami waswithin six midway through the final quarter, the Hawks scored fivestraight to restore a double-digit edge.

And now, ateam that was the East’s No. 1 seed last spring is one game fromelimination.

“Nothingabout this season has been easy,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.“We’re going to do this the hard way.”

TIP-INS

Hawks: It wasthe second time this season that Atlanta took a huge first-halflead and nearly wasted it all. The Hawks were up 26 over Miami onJan. 16, let the Heat get within four in the final moments and heldon to win 121-113. … Capela had one 20-rebound game in the regularseason.

Heat: Lowrycame off the bench in a postseason game for the first time since2009. His last 94 appearances after the regular season were allstarts. … The Heat went 1-6 this season against Friday’s possiblewin-or-go-home opponents — 0-3 against Chicago and 1-3 againstToronto.

LOOKING AHEAD

Boston went3-0 against Atlanta this season, and nearly all the rotationplayers from both teams missed at least one of those contests.Young averaged 31 points and 11 assists in two games against theCeltics; Jayson Tatum averaged 26.5 points, 11 rebounds and sevenassists in two games against the Hawks.

It’ll be the13th series between the Celtics and Hawks franchises, the firstsince Atlanta’s six-game Round 1 win in 2016.

PLAY-IN HISTORY

Miami becamethe 16th franchise to participate in the play-in tournament.Chicago, Toronto and Oklahoma City will stretch that list out to 19teams on Wednesday. That leaves only Dallas, Denver, Detroit,Houston, Milwaukee, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix,Sacramento and Utah as clubs who have yet to be part of the play-inevent.

UPNEXT

Hawks: VisitBoston for Game 1 of an East first-round series Saturday.

Heat: Hosteither Toronto or Chicago in an elimination game Friday.