Court Vision: Teague propels Hawks past Heat for fourth straight
Going inside the Hawks' 112-102 win over the Heat on Wednesday in Miami. It marks Atlanta's fourth straight victory and their sixth in the last seven games.
With Mike Budenholzer wanting the utilize the speed and defense of Dennis Schroder in Tuesday's win over the Celtics, Jeff Teague was the victim.
He spent the final 15 minutes on the bench as Schroder dazzled yet again and Teague had just nine points in 25 minutes of play.
Teague maintains that he sees Schroder as "my little brother," and sees his role as mentor to the 21-year-old.
There's no rivalry here, but Tuesday's extra rest paid off on the second night of a back-to-back as he had 27 points along with six assists, four rebounds and three steals.
The point guard's splits have been drastic as he's averaging 19.6 points at Philips Arena and 13.8 away from it. Teague has had strong road games, scoring 28 in Oct. 25's win over the Wizards, but he shot 42.1 percent (8 of 19) in that one and against the Heat, Teague hit 8 of his 11 shots and had 24 of his points after halftime.
"We just got to be aggressive," Teague said of the effort. "I think the first half we were all passive, but when we do that we are a better team."
Added with the Hawks' Nov. 14 win over the Heat, Atlanta now has four straight victories in this rivalry.
It's a stunning turnaround when you consider that those first two games included LeBron James in a Miami uniform and the level of domination the Heat had since 2010-11 in these matchups.
Miami had won 16 of 17 from Jan. 4, 2010-Dec. 23, 2013 and it looked like it may supply another victory as they cut a 14-point lead to one with 7:24 left in the third off a Chris Bosh three-pointer.
The Hawks responded with a run to close out the quarter 23-10 en route and Miami never got closer than 10 in the fourth as Atlanta claimed its longest winning streak over the Heat since March 14, 1993-March, 26, 1994, back when Kevin Willis, Mookie Blaylock and Stacey Augmon were sporting the Pac Man logo on their shorts.
Schroder pulled up and buried a three-pointer at the buzzer to close out the third quarter as the Hawks' German import continued his impressive run, even with Teague's eruption.
Schroder had 14 points on 5 of 6 shooting in just 12 minutes of play, giving him five straight games with at least 11 points.
He started the fourth quarter for the second straight night and while Schroder continues to excel at getting to the basket with his speed, he's showing an improved jumper.
Schroder hit a three from the left of the key in the first quarter, then nailed 9-foot and 16-foot jumpers in the second before canning that aforementioned trey to end the third.
In playing just over 16 minutes a game, Schroder has a 19.3 PER, which ranks 54th in the league, but it puts him just behind the likes of his All-Star teammates Al Horford (20.1) and Paul Millsap (19.9) and he's ahead of the Cavaliers' Kevin Love (19.0).
4 -- How is life without LeBron treating the Heat? The Hawks dealt them a fourth double-digit home loss of the season.
4-1 -- Atlanta now stands 4-1 in the Southeast, which is the most wins of any Eastern Conference team against division opponents. That equals the Western Conference's Warriors, with only the Trail Blazers having more at 5-0.
