Daily Dime: Hawks one of the best closing teams

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MIAMI -- LeBron James and Dwyane Wade fancy themselves as two of the best finishers in the game, each with a track record of being able to create and convert plays in pressure situations. The Atlanta Hawks have no such reputation, save for a couple Joe Johnson moments over the years, and that is unfair at this point. Because this season the Hawks have proven to be one of the best finishing teams in the NBA, especially in crunch-time situations on the road.

The quietly surging Hawks made a statement with their 93-89 overtime victory over the Miami Heat on Tuesday night. And it wasn't just that Miami, now on a four-game losing streak, still hasn't arrived even after its white-hot 21-1 stretch is now a distant memory.

Atlanta fought at the end of regulation and overtime, when James, just back from a sprained ankle, twice missed potential game-winning 3-pointers. The Hawks moved to 12-0 on the road this season when leading after three quarters and 23-1 overall. They did it this time without Al Horford, who missed the fourth quarter and overtime with a sprained ankle.

That makes 14 road wins so far for the Hawks, second in the East only to the Heat. Atlanta has won five in a row on the road, including victories in Miami and Utah.

"We showed up tonight," said a drained but satisfied Hawks coach Larry Drew, whose team improved to 28-15 with wins now in seven of its past eight games. "We just hung in there."

The Hawks absorbed 34 points from James, who came back after missing two games with a sprained ankle, and 27 from Wade. They played lineups in which the tallest player on the floor was 6-foot-9 Josh Smith. With a little help from the Heat, the Hawks were also able to neutralize both James and Wade when the game was in the balance.

Whether it was the Hawks' tenacity -- they came back from six points down and then five points down in the fourth quarter when the Heat looked poised to run away -- or their own uncertainty, the Heat were clearly out-of-whack.

Playing without Chris Bosh because of his own ankle sprain and not really sure James would be able to play until an hour before tip, the Heat looked as disjointed as their rough days back in November.

This was illustrated best by James, who was both at the top of his game and at his worst at various points. It was almost a throwback to his middling days in Cleveland, where he'd completely take over a game, forget about his teammates and appear to both win it and lose it by himself a half dozen times before the final buzzer.

"I had a week off and that is what happens sometimes," said James, who had 10 rebounds and seven assists. "We had everything going and when you have a few injuries it takes the chemistry out, it takes the rhythm out of a team."

The Heat's nice rhythm before the losing streak featured James and Wade sharing the offensive load. In moments when the Heat needed a basket, they proved difficult to keep track of, a dynamic that affirmed their decision to join forces in Miami. They even split the Player of the Month Award in December as the Heat looked unbeatable for five weeks.

On Tuesday, Wade didn't take a single shot in overtime and James took six. It was eerily familiar to an overtime game back in November when Wade took seven shots in a home overtime loss to the Utah Jazz and James took only one. That was also the last time the Heat looked so unsure of themselves and their roles.

They have certainly proven they can be effective playing together but they have yet to refine those habits.

James fired up 30 shots, making just 11, and Wade didn't have a single attempt during the last seven minutes.

Some of those struggles can be attributed to the lineups that were on the floor. Without Bosh and Udonis Haslem, long out with a foot injury, the Heat were scrambling to find big men to play together. For much of the game James played power forward -- and even played some stretches at center.

But without good pick-and-roll partners late, James often just froze up and didn't run anything. The offense was frequently reduced to James just dribbling and waiting for something to happen with Wade nowhere to be found -- basically a repeat of his worst moments as a Cav when he didn't have a player like Wade on the floor with him.

"So far this season when we have tweaked things and gone a bit unconventional, it has thrown us," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "Unfortunately, we have to go through some pain right now."

The fluid lineups of the last week have contributed to that pain, but the Hawks warrant some credit. The Heat's decision to go small played into Atlanta's hands as Drew deployed a small and athletic lineup that could easily match up. Some of the time, there were few, if any, good looks for the Heat because Atlanta played expert defense and didn't allow it.

Johnson had an off night, shooting just 8-of-24, and Smith was just 6-of-18. But Jamal Crawford, who can play anywhere when his rainbow jumper is falling, had 19 points and Maurice Evans hit two clutch shots in overtime.

And the Hawks just did what they do -- close out a game.

"They fought us well," Wade said. "It was a good Eastern Conference game, a good battle. They made the plays down the stretch."