Miami Heat extended its lead in the Playoff games against Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday with a tally of 115-105, with Jimmy Butler taking charge. The team now has now won two games so far, getting a stronger hold in the Playoffs.
Butler dominated the court against Atlanta Hawks, scoring 45 points for his team. He also had six assists and nine rebounds, sealing a win for his team.
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Butler surpassed his previous Playoff best of 40 on Tuesday. He secured the tally two years ago when Miami Heat reached the NBA Finals. The Heat needed all of his heroics then, and they needed them all against Atlanta Hawks as well.
The second highest score tally by a Miami Heat player on Tuesday was Tyler Herro’s, who scored 15. Max Strus scored 14 and Gabe Vincent added 11 for top-seeded Miami.
Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 19 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter for Atlanta. Trae Young scored 25 for the Hawks, while De’Andre Hunter had 16 and John Collins finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds for the Hawks.
The first half featured 16 fouls by Atlanta and 14 by Miami — a season-high for the Hawks, one off the season-high for the Heat, and those 30 personals didn’t even include a double technical that Lowry and Hunter got for getting face-to-face.
Young picked up a technical for arguing a foul against him late in the third as well, the capper to a period where the Heat went from barely ahead to holders of a double-digit lead going into the final 12 minutes.
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A game-winning statistic
Teams that take a 2-0 lead in a best-of-seven matchup have eventually won the series 92.4% of the time, Associated Press reported.
The Hawks have never rallied from 0-2 down in a series (0-25) and the Heat have never wasted a 2-0 lead (17-0) — but there were four such rallies in last season’s playoffs, two by the Los Angeles Clippers and two others by Milwaukee.