HEAT Ground the Hawks in the 4th

By: Steve Ranwsley

It took a while for the Heat to get rolling, but when they did, they could not be stopped. In their first game since the All-Star break, the Heat looked like they were still on vacation for most of the first three quarters. However, in the fourth quarter everything changed.

The Heat have that rare ability to flip the switch sometimes, and they did just that. Heading into the fourth quarter they were down by ten. However, in the fourth quarter, they forced the Hawwks to turn the ball over a lot, and when the Heat force turnovers, they are nearly impossible to beat. LeBron and Wade got a lot of easy baskets for themselves in the open court after the turnovers. The Heat outscored the Hawks 40-17 in the fourth quarter to make it look like a blowout, when for most of the game it was relatively close.

There were two negatives in the game for the Heat. The recurring theme of getting outrebounded came up again tonight, as they lost on the boards 42-33. The other negative was Chris Bosh was mediocre, scoring only six points and having six
boards. He did not have a field goal till the second half of the fourth quarter. Shane Battier and Ray Allen stepped up for the Heat scoring 32 points combined, and hitting seven threes from downtown.

On the other end, Al Horford played very well for the Hawks getting 27 points on only 15 field goal attempts, along with nine boards. Miami trailed by 10 going into the fourth quarter, but opened with a 9-0 spurt. They went on a huge run and scored 40 points in the quarter.

The HEAT won the game 103-90 and improved to 37-14.

MVP: LeBron James

Stop me if you have heard him mentioned in the MVP section of a recap. Oh you have? It is quite common? It is funny how he is so great, even a 24 points 11 assist, and 4 steal game seems boring. He kept the Heat in the game, and then helped lead the attack in the fourth quarter.

Key Stat: 10 of 23 from downtown

As mentioned earlier, Ray Allen and Shane Battier led the outside attack going 7-14 from downtown. Mario Chalmers chipped in going 2-4.

Next Up:

The HEAT take on the Bulls in Chicago Thursday night at 8PM. The game is nationally televised on TNT.