The Miami Heat dominated their opener against the Atlanta Hawks to win 115-91 in the opener of their series on Sunday afternoon.
Atlanta was limited to 38.7% of its shots, while Miami was successful on 52.4% of its attempts.
Duncan Robinson led the Heat with 27 points, thanks in part to eight completions in nine tries from behind the three-point arc.
Jimmy Butler had a strong game with 21 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals.
The Heat, runners-up in 2020 and seeded No. 1, gave a basketball lesson to the far too tender Hawks (No. 8), who will have to show pride in the following confrontations, to avoid a broomstick.
The DNA of the Heat is however well known: combativeness at all times, tough defense, versatility in attack. And these perfectly applied qualities first claimed a victim: Young was stifled, unable to weigh in the game, as he had been able to do on Friday, by scoring 38 points in the second playoff game won by the Hawks at Cleveland.
He only made one basket out of 12 attempted (8 pts, 6 rebounds, 4 assists), his lowest total this season and less than the number of blows taken: a hand in the face and a dive, certainly involuntary, on an ankle, works by Kyle Lowry (10 pts, 9 assists), as well as a neck grab by Jimmy Butler (21 pts) at the start of the match after a collision which earned them a technical foul each.
“We wanted to make it very physically intense for him, challenge every shot, take him away from the three-point line and force him to pass the ball. He’s a great passer, but above all he can score a lot of points and we didn’t want that,” Butler summed up.
On the Hawks side, where Clint Capela, victim of a knee hyper-extension on Friday during the play-off won in Cleveland, missed a lot inside, only Danilo Gallinari (17 pts) and DeAndre Hunter (14 pts) existed .
