Heat Check: Miami stumbles out of gate, struggles to catch Hawks

Published Feb. 28, 2015 10:34 p.m. ET

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MIAMI -- The Miami Heat suffered through another poor shooting night and trailed the entire game in a 93-91 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday at AmericanAirlines Arena.

With the Hawks owning a nine-game lead atop of the Eastern Conference and playing on the second night of a back-to-back, head coach Mike Budenholzer elected to rest Jeff Teague, Pero Antic and DeMarre Carroll. Al Horford, whose wife just had a child, didn't travel to Miami.

It hardly mattered, with the Heat unable to score consistently from the start against the team ranked second in the league in points allowed. The final margin of victory was not indicative of how the Hawks controlled the game through all four quarters.

"These players are good," Dwyane Wade said of the Hawks. "Just because they don't start doesn't mean they can't play. They have a system you just plug guys into. These guys have confidence in the system."

Wade shook off his own struggles from the floor with a team-leading 22 points but got little support from his teammates aside from Hassan Whiteside, who tied his career-high with 24 rebounds to go along with 14 points.

In his first start for the Heat, Henry Walker shot just 3 of 16 for 10 points. Fellow starters Goran Dragic, who never got on track with six points and six assists, and Luol Deng, who didn't score until the fourth quarter and had eight turnovers, also had poor outings.

The Hawks scored the first eight points to begin the second half and increase their lead to 18, the biggest of the night, before the Heat stormed back with a 14-4 run.

Despite missing several players, Atlanta spread the offensive workload through all available players with their highly effective team-first approach. In contrast, the Heat appeared to be taking turns shooting the ball with up-and-down results. Though the second half was more competitive, the Hawks were able to respond to each Heat run with timely baskets.

"Basketball is a rhythm game, you have to have guys in sync," Walker said. "Right now we're trying to find that balance."

THE TURNING POINT

Kent Bazemore hit a late 3-pointer with a minute left to help fend off one last push led by Wade to turn the game around.

THE DIFFERENCE MAKER

Dennis Schroder took over the starting point guard responsibilities in Teague's absence and scored 16 points and dished out 10 assists.

"I thought Dennis made some great plays and great decisions, especially there late finding guys," Budenholzer said. "It's a great opportunity for Dennis."

STAT OF THE GAME

The Heat tied their season low point total in the first quarter with 12 and had their worst shooting first half of the season at 28.6 percent.

WHAT'S NEXT

Miami will host the Phoenix Suns on Monday at 7:30 p.m.

You can follow Surya Fernandez on Twitter @SuryaHeatNBA or email him at SuryaFoxSports@gmail.com.