Miami.- Trae Young scored 25 points, Clint Capela grabbed 21 rebounds and the Atlanta Falcons clinched the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs by beating the Miami Heat 116-105 on Tuesday in a play-in game.
Dejounte Murray added 18 points for the Falcons, who avenged a five-game Round 1 loss to Miami last season and won an East first-round matchup with Boston that begins Saturday.
Kyle Lowry scored 33 points, his highest-scoring game in his two seasons in Miami, for the Heat, who host either Toronto or Chicago on Friday to decide the No. 8 seed and a berth against top seed Milwaukee in Round 1. The Raptors and the Bulls play today; the winner of Friday’s game opens the series against the Bucks on Sunday.
Tyler Herro scored 26 for Miami and Jimmy Butler finished with 21.
For the Falcons, four reserves — Saddiq Bey, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Onyeka Okongwu and Jalen Johnson — combined for 53 points.
The Falcons improved to 3-0 in play-in tournament play; that’s the best mark in the league, one New Orleans can match when it hosts Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.
And they earned this one on the tables. Atlanta outrebounded Miami 63-39, including 22-6 on the offensive glass that gave it a 26-6 advantage in second-chance points.
The Falcons took two timeouts in the first 3:53 of the third quarter, as most of what was a 24-point lead with 2:37 remaining in the first half (63-39 Atlanta was the margin) was gone. It was shrinking and fast.
Miami cut the margin to 15 by halftime, then opened the third quarter on a 16-6 run. Add it all up, and it was a 27-8 run in about 7 minutes of play to bring the Heat within 71-66.
But the Falcons had an answer at the time, and every other time the Heat made a run. Atlanta’s lead was again 13 going into the quarter, and with Miami trailing by six midway through the fourth quarter, the Hawks scored five straight to restore a double-digit lead.
