Heat host Pacers on Friday after their first win of the season

The first win

Giannis Antetokounmpo had 24 points and 18 rebounds for his first win with the Miami Heat, who beat the Atlanta Hawks 129-117 on Wednesday night. Miami had lost its first four games after acquiring Antetokounmpo from Milwaukee in the offseason, and the win left the Heat at 1-4.

The AP described the move as one that had been expected to make Miami an immediate contender in the Eastern Conference. Antetokounmpo is a two-time MVP, and the Heat gave up a significant part of their roster to get him. The first four games produced four losses, including a triple-double from Antetokounmpo in a defeat at Dallas on Monday.

Bam Adebayo also scored 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds. In the same game he passed Udonis Haslem to become the Heat's career leader in rebounds, according to the Associated Press, which put Haslem's total at 5,791.

Antetokounmpo reached 1,000 career steals in the game, the AP reported. The win came on his fifth attempt with the Heat.

Adebayo passes Haslem

The rebounding record now belongs to a player who has spent his whole career with Miami. Haslem played 20 seasons for the Heat and stayed with the organization after retiring, and his 5,791 rebounds had stood since he left the floor.

Adebayo's nine rebounds on Wednesday were enough to move him past that mark. He did it in a game Miami led for most of the night, which meant his minutes came in a normal rotation rather than in a late comeback, and he finished with the same scoring total as Antetokounmpo.

The record is a counting stat that rewards availability as much as ability. Haslem reached 5,791 over two decades, and Adebayo reached it in a career that is still in its prime. The number will keep moving with him, and the next player who chases it will need the same length of stay in Miami.

Seventy points in the paint

Miami shot 53% from the field and scored 70 points in the paint. The Heat made 15 of 23 shots in the first quarter, 65%, to take a 34-25 lead, and they led 69-56 at halftime. Their biggest lead came late in the third quarter, when Tim Hardaway Jr.'s 3-pointer made it 95-77.

Andrew Wiggins scored 18 points and Pelle Larsson had 17 points, eight assists and six rebounds. Hardaway scored 14 off the bench. The Heat's scoring came from enough places that Atlanta could not load up on Antetokounmpo without leaving somebody else alone at the rim.

The Hawks could not match that inside scoring. Jalen Johnson shot 4 for 12 and finished with 12 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds, one rebound short of a triple-double in a game his team trailed for most of the second half.

Seventy paint points is the kind of number that usually decides a game, and it did here. A team that scores that much inside is either running or winning the first step in the half court, and Miami did both for three quarters. The caveat is the same one that applies to any single-game shooting line: one night does not establish a pattern.

Atlanta's third straight loss

Rookie Kingston Flemings and Nickeil Alexander-Walker each scored 23 points for Atlanta. The Hawks opened the season with two wins and have now lost three in a row, dropping to 2-3.

The schedule has been part of that run. Atlanta played the first game of a home back-to-back on Wednesday, and the start of Thursday's game against Cleveland was pushed back an hour so that Game 6 of the WNBA Finals could be played at State Farm Arena in the afternoon.

Both teams play again quickly: the Heat host Indiana on Friday, and the Hawks host Cleveland on Thursday. Our report on Miami's opening week covered the first four games of the Antetokounmpo era, all of them losses.

The rest of the night

Oklahoma City lost its first game of the season, 120-96 at Dallas. The AP reported that a win would have made the Thunder the first team in NBA history to start three straight seasons 5-0. Cooper Flagg, 19, scored 26 points with eight assists for Dallas.

Houston became the first team to reach 5-0, beating Milwaukee 132-100 behind 24 points from Fred VanVleet and 23 from Amen Thompson. Our report on Houston's start covers the win over the Bucks.

San Antonio beat Utah 117-111 for its third straight win, with Victor Wembanyama scoring 36 points and 14 rebounds. Our Spurs-Thunder opening night report covers how those two teams started the season.

Philadelphia improved to 4-1 by beating Indiana 114-109. Tyrese Maxey scored 17 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter, Joel Embiid had 21 points and 11 rebounds, and the Pacers were without Tyrese Haliburton, who the AP reported will miss about two weeks with a hamstring injury. Indiana is the Heat's next opponent.

What the win changes

One win does not fix a 1-4 start, and the Heat's schedule does not get easier. But the game answered two questions that four losses had left open: whether Antetokounmpo and Adebayo can share the floor without one of them standing still, and whether Miami's role players can score when the defense loads up on the two stars.

The answers on Wednesday were yes and mostly yes. Adebayo matched Antetokounmpo's 24 points, Wiggins and Larsson added 35 between them, and the Heat scored 70 points in the paint. The Pacers game on Friday will show whether that holds against a team that has its own problems.