Veteran Vince Carter scored the go-ahead basket and added an assist and a free throw in the final minutes to help the Atlanta Hawks to a 123-118 win over the visiting Miami Heat on Saturday night.
The victory snapped a four-game losing streak for Atlanta while extending Miami's skid to three games.
Carter knocked down a jumper with 2:39 left to give Atlanta a 120-118 lead, then set up Kent Bazemore's bucket with 2:00 left to put the Hawks ahead for good. He later made the free throw to expand the lead to five points. Carter finished with 12 points.
Atlanta also got 24 points and 15 assists from Trae Young, who suffered through a 2-for-8 shooting night on 3-pointers. Taurean Prince and Dewayne Dedmon both scored 15 points, and Kevin Huerter, who wasn't expected to play because of a bad ankle, scored 12.
Young joined Dominique Wilkins as the only players in Hawks franchise history to score at least 10 points in their first nine games in the NBA. Young had been tied with John Drew at eight.
Miami got another superb scoring night from guard Josh Richardson, who set a career high with 32 points, breaking the mark of 31 he established two games ago. Richardson was 6 of 10 on 3-point attempts.
The Heat also got 19 points from Dwayne Wade, 18 from Rodney McGruder, 17 from Tyler Johnson and 15 from Justise Winslow.
The Hawks jumped out to a 41-31 lead after the first quarter and led 74-68 at the half. Unlike the last four games, Atlanta didn't experience a third-quarter meltdown and instead stretched its lead to 102-93.
The Heat played without guard Goran Dragic, who took the night off because of pain in his right foot. Dragic, who was the team's second-leading scorer (17.7 points per game), had a cortisone shot but opted to rest the injury that occurred two weeks ago. It was the first game Dragic has missed because of the injury.
--Field Level Media
Miami | Atlanta | |
Josh Richardson 32 | Scoring | Trae Young 24 |
Justise Winslow 8 | Assists | Trae Young 15 |
Justise Winslow 10 | Rebounds | Dewayne Dedmon 7 |
Josh Richardson 6 | Free Throws Made | Jeremy Lin 4 |
Josh Richardson 2 | Steals | DeAndre' Bembry 3 |
Bam Adebayo 2 | Blocks | Alex Len 3 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
Miami | 118 | 48.2 | 16-40 | 20-26 | 27 | 41 | 6 | 6 | 18 |
Atlanta | 123 | 52.3 | 13-32 | 18-23 | 33 | 37 | 7 | 11 | 18 |