Duncan Robinson couldn’t miss shots. Trae Young couldn’t make shots.
In simplest terms, that’s how Game 1 went for Miami and Atlanta.
Robinson came off the bench to set a franchise playoff record with eight 3-pointers, and the top-seeded Heat forced Young into matching the worst-shooting game of his career on the way to a 115-91 win over the eighth-seeded Hawks in the opener of an Eastern Conference first-round series Sunday.
“It’s always nice to throw the first punch,” Robinson said. “But in the grand scheme of things, it’s just winning one game.”
Robinson scored 27 points on 9-of-10 shooting for the Heat, 8 of 9 from 3-point range. Jimmy Butler scored 21, P.J. Tucker added 16 and Kyle Lowry had 10.
But this wasn’t about offense for Miami. It was about defense, so much so that even Heat coach Erik Spoelstra — a former point guard himself — spent some possessions in a defensive stance, clapping his hands and imploring his team to dig a little bit deeper on that end of the floor.
