Dwyane Wade scores 24, Heat hold off Bucks for 107-103 win

The Atlanta Hawks (27-21) will visit the Miami Heat (26-21) at the American Airlines Arena on Sunday.

“We were in a big hole all night”, coach Mike Budenholzer said.

Paul Millsap continues to be the top all-around performer for the Hawks, averaging a team-high 18 points and 8.8 rebounds per game. Additionally, in those last five games Miami went 4-1 including road wins over two playoff teams in Milwaukee and Chicago, and a road blowout win against Brooklyn.

When the tight game in Milwaukee got down to the final minutes, Wade flew in from nowhere into a crowd of Bucks players to slap an offensive rebound out to Justise Winslow (not technically a defensive play, but somewhat in that genre), which led to a crucial 3-pointer by Luol Deng. Wade’s 17 points left him tied with Bernard King (19,655) for 42nd on the NBA’s career scoring chart.

After starting the season 54th on the scoring list, Wade has passed guys like Terry Cummings, Scottie Pippen, and Isaiah Thomas to name a few.

Atlanta warmed up some in the second half, but nowhere near enough. Dragic has missed the last eight games with a calf strain, while McRoberts has been out since December 7 with a bone bruise on his knee. The Hawks cut a 22-point deficit to nine late in the third quarter, but Miami got the lead back to 13 going into the fourth and wasn’t challenged again. The Bucks’ turnovers negated strong showings from Parker and Monroe, who scored 13 and 12 points, respectively, in the first two quarters as the Bucks shot 45.5 percent. The Heat ended up 3-2 on a trip that featured a multitude of injuries.

The Atlanta Hawks are not playing good basketball at the present time.

The Heat went into the fourth quarter up 75-62 despite not having a player with more than 12 points to that juncture.

For the twelfth straight year, the Miami Heat will have representation at the NBA All-Star Game. Someone will grab Miami’s 100,000th rebound (including playoffs) this week, probably Tuesday at Houston. Wade’s averaged 23.6 points, 6.4 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game while shooting 50% from the floor.

As has been the case since getting point guards Goran Dragic and Beno Udrih back from injuries, the Heat continually pushed the ball across midcourt, even after Hawks baskets, allowing them to further explore the possibilities of their emerging halfcourt offense.

Wade was able to do a little bit of everything for the Heat in the last week, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.