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Hawks-Heat Preview

Jan 3, 2010 - 6:24 PM By BRETT HUSTON STATS Writer

Atlanta (21-11) at Miami (16-15), 7:30 p.m. EDT

The Atlanta Hawks and the Miami Heat met as the fourth and fifth seeds in the first round of last spring's Eastern Conference playoffs, and that's again where the teams currently are near the halfway point this season.

Neither team has looked much like a postseason contender of late, however.

The Heat and Hawks meet for the second time this season Monday night in south Florida both hoping to avoid their first four-game losing streaks.

Atlanta (21-11) looked like it might be on the verge of cracking the East's top three after starting 19-6, but in going 2-5 over the past seven games, it's hardly looked like a contender.

The Hawks had only lost consecutive games once before their current three-game skid, which began with back-to-back losses to Cleveland, the team that swept Atlanta out of the second round of the postseason.

Friday night's result, though, was more disturbing. The Hawks blew a 13-point lead after three quarters and New York's Nate Robinson, who had been banished to the bench for the past 14 games, had 25 of his 41 points from that point to lift the Knicks to a 112-108 overtime win.

"We played well enough to get beat," coach Mike Woodson said. "We just stopped playing. Give (Robinson) credit, but we were in control, and we just didn't do the things that got us the lead."

While defense has been Atlanta's problem over the past three games - Cleveland and New York shot 49.4 percent while averaging 104.3 points - an inability to score has been Miami's biggest issue during its second three-game skid.

The Heat (16-15) have averaged 88.7 points over the past three games while allowing 103.3. Miami's offensive effort Saturday against Charlotte was its best of the bunch, but it let the Bobcats score 34 fourth-quarter points in a 107-97 loss.

With no stretch of more than three consecutive wins or losses, the Heat have been among the league's most inconsistent teams.

"All we can do is, every day, come back and hopefully get it," said Dwyane Wade, who's averaged 22.3 points and 6.3 turnovers during Miami's latest slide. "It's frustrating, playing good for four or five, then not good for four or five. That's not what you want to do, but there isn't much else you can do besides show up every day and try to get it right."

The Heat are 10-13 when Wade fails to score 30 points.

His lowest-scoring game came in Miami's lone meeting with the Hawks. Atlanta held Wade to 15 points on 6-of-18 shooting in a 105-90 win on Nov. 18 behind 30 points from Joe Johnson.

Al Horford had 16 points and 12 rebounds in that game - one of his 16 double-doubles - and when Horford is contributing offensively, the Hawks are tough to beat. Horford's 22-points, 19-rebound and five-block performance against the Knicks was a rare exception for Atlanta, which is 18-4 when he scores at least 11 points.

Miami is 4-0 when scoring 95 points or more against the Hawks since the start of the 2008-09 season - including the playoffs - and 0-8 when it fails to reach that mark.

Atlanta last lost four straight from Jan. 7-13, 2009, while the Heat haven't dropped four in a row since a seven-game skid from March 26-April 6, 2008.