Miami Put Heat On Cold-Shooting Hawks

A dominant first half, in which the Heat held the Hawks without a field goal for more than 13 minutes, led to the easy win.

Dwyane Wade scored 35 points and the Miami Heat inched closer to second place in the Southeast Division with a 95-79 victory over the Atlanta Hawks Monday.

A dominant first half, in which the Heat held the Hawks without a field goal for more than 13 minutes, led to the easy win.

Atlanta led 12-11 after Marvin Williams connected on a three-pointer with 5:57 left in the first period.

The Hawks did not score another field goal until 4:32 remained in the half. By then they were behind 33-19.

The Hawks had only eight field goals in the first half and their 27 points at intermission were a franchise-low.

The win pulled third-placed Miami within one and a half games of the Hawks, who sit seven and a half behind division leader Orlando.

Wade, the NBA scoring leader, had 12 points in the second quarter when the Heat outscored the Hawks 29-13. He came up with 12 more in the fourth quarter after Atlanta rallied to within seven points.

Daequan Cook added 16 and Mario Chalmers had 12. Udonis Haslem had a game-high 13 rebounds and eight points.

The Atlanta scoring was more balanced. Joe Johnson led with 19, Williams had 17 and Josh Smith and Ronald Murray contributed 14 each. Smith also had 10 rebounds.