The Miami Heat cannot be accused of complacency despite their blowout Game 1 win over the Atlanta Hawks in Sunday’s NBA Playoff opener.
The Heat posted an easy 115-91 win in their series opener against the Hawks, doing so largely by suffocating Atlanta star Trae Young. Young was held to just eight points, turned the ball over six times, and missed all seven of his three-point attempts.
Miami was justifiably proud of the defense they’d played on Young in the opener, but Heat guard Kyle Lowry warned that this level of success cannot be expected to continue.
“Listen, he’s going to make more than one shot,” Lowry said, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “He’s going to have more than four assists. He’s going to explode. But we just got to stay patient and stick with what we do.”
Lowry is right, as Young has shown himself to be very hard to contain. He’s a big game player who loves to play the heel, though the Heat made clear very early that they would be standing up to him. Miami does not have to be perfect to contain Young and win the series, but they’ll be fine if they consistently come anywhere close to what they did Sunday.
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