Giannis Has 24 and 18 as Heat Beat Hawks 129-117 for First Win

By Taki Panos

Giannis Antetokounmpo finally got to enjoy one. Five games into his first season with the Miami Heat, the Greek superstar put up 24 points and 18 rebounds on Wednesday night at State Farm Arena, and Miami beat the Atlanta Hawks 129-117 for its first win of the season. The fourth quarter got a little tense, but the Heat led after every quarter, and the winless start is now officially behind them.

Some context for anyone catching up. Giannis arrived from the Milwaukee Bucks in the offseason, and the Heat dropped their first four games with him, including a triple-double night that ended in a 113-109 loss to Dallas on Monday. The talent was obvious in every one of those games. What was missing was the finish, and on Wednesday Miami finally found one, per the Associated Press and ESPN.

His line was efficient and physical. Giannis made 11 of his 18 shots from the field, grabbed 18 rebounds (five of them on the offensive glass), and added three assists, a steal and a block in just under 31 minutes, according to the NBA.com box score. The only real blemish was the free-throw line, where he went 2 of 5. Even so, this was a night where he owned the paint whenever he was on the floor.

Miami set the tone early. The Heat made 15 of their 23 shots in the first quarter, a 65% clip, and took a 34-25 lead, per AP. By halftime it was 69-56, and Tim Hardaway Jr.'s three-pointer late in the third quarter pushed the gap to 95-77, Miami's biggest lead of the night. Atlanta was still within 12 heading into the fourth, though, and that is where things got interesting.

Atlanta's bench pushed back hard, with rookie Kingston Flemings leading the charge, and the Hawks cut the lead to four with 6:21 to play, per the Miami Herald and Sportshub's recap. For a team that had lost four straight, this was exactly the kind of moment that had slipped away before. This time Miami answered right away, pushed the margin back to double digits, and closed it out without any late drama.

The numbers inside the paint explain a lot. The Heat shot 53% from the field and scored a huge 70 points in the paint, per AP and ESPN, and they added 21 fast-break points, according to the NBA.com box score. After getting pushed around on the glass early in the season, Miami also won the rebounding battle, per the Miami Herald, and Giannis's 18 boards were the biggest reason why.

Bam Adebayo deserves his own paragraph, and then some. After a slow start to the season, he matched Giannis with 24 points on 8-of-16 shooting, went 8 of 9 at the line, and added nine rebounds and three steals, per the Miami Herald and NBA.com. More importantly for the history books, he moved past Udonis Haslem as the Heat's all-time leading rebounder. ESPN and RealGM put his new total at 5,794, three more than the 5,791 Haslem collected over his 20 seasons in Miami.

That record meant a lot, because Haslem was Adebayo's mentor and the captain before him. "Man, I can't really put it into words," Adebayo said in his on-court interview, per ESPN. "The person I'm passing has been so close to me throughout my 10 years in this career, from the time I walked in until now." Coach Erik Spoelstra called the record "so well deserved" and said Adebayo had done it "with an iron will, a work ethic that's unmatched."

The supporting cast showed up too. Andrew Wiggins scored 18 points, Pelle Larsson had 17 points, eight assists and six rebounds, and Hardaway added 14 off the bench. Davion Mitchell chipped in 10 points and 10 assists, and Bobby Portis had 11 points and nine rebounds, per the NBA.com box score. For Atlanta, Flemings and Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 23 each, while Jalen Johnson finished with 12 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds on 4-of-12 shooting.

Giannis pointed to the defense as the real difference. "When we play defense, when we guard our own man, when we focus on that, our offense becomes a lot easier," he said after the game, per the Miami Herald. "We were able to score 129 points. It's something that we did in the preseason. It's something that we know that we're capable of doing. And the game was easier for us. It was more fun." That last line might be the most important one, because this group really needed a night that felt fun.

Spoelstra, for his part, did not treat one win like a turning point. "We've been able to handle some adversity appropriately," he said, per ESPN and RealGM. "Nobody was hanging their heads when they came in the next day. We were all frustrated to the start of the season. This one game is not all we're looking for. Obviously we're trying to build something much bigger than that." Miami is now 1-4, while Atlanta has dropped three straight to fall to 2-3.

My take: this is the version of the Heat that made the trade make sense. Giannis and Bam both scored 24, the ball moved, and Miami lived in the paint instead of settling for jumpers. The defense still leaked in the fourth quarter, and 2 of 5 from the line will not win many close games, so nobody should get carried away at 1-4. But a team that keeps its head after a winless week and then plays like this has something real to build on, and Giannis looked lighter on Wednesday than he has all month.

Next up: the Heat return home to host the Indiana Pacers on Friday night at Kaseya Center in an NBA Cup group-stage game, with tip-off at 8:00 PM ET (2:00 AM Saturday in Greece), per AP. For every Giannis game and the rest of the week's Greek sports news, keep an eye on our Greek Sports section. One win down, plenty more to chase.

Sources: Associated Press, ESPN, NBA.com, Miami Herald, RealGM, Sportshub.

Image: Giannis Antetokounmpo at the 2022 NBA All-Star Game, photo by Erik Drost via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).