What the Miami Heat can apply from their win over the Atlanta Hawks against the Indiana Pacers

The Miami Heat had a nice win against the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night despite being without Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro, but with the return of Pelle Larsson and Nikola Jović.

Here's what went right for them and what they can apply to their matchup against the Indiana Pacers on Saturday night.

Remembering who you are: The Heat went back to their defensive identity in this game, which was not the case for many of their other games recently. Although Trae Young had an efficient 30 points and Jalen Johnson continued his strong play this season with another productive game, (24 points, 10 assists, nine rebounds), the Heat held the Hawks to an 11th percentile offensive rating overall and an assist-to-turnover ratio that would rank last in the league.

The Heat had 14 steals, and forced the Hawks into 21 total turnovers. Their 12.7 steal percentage in this game would easily lead the league for the season. All nine of the Heat's rotation players in this game finished with at least one steal, while Dru Smith and Jaime Jaquez Jr. finished with three steals, two for Davion Mitchell.

The standout stretches for the Heat were the second quarter, where they held the Hawks to an abysmal 65.5 offensive rating and the final quarter, where they held them to a poor 108 offensive rating.

Even though they will be playing on the second night of a back-to-back, the 6-25 Pacers, who've given them trouble in years past, should be a nice matchup for them. They still have notorious Heat killer T.J. McConnell, but they Pacers deploy the worst offensive rating in the league without superstar Tyrese Haliburton running the show this season.

Step closer: Offensively, although the Heat didn't shoot well from three, (30.6 percent), or in the paint, (31 percent), the Heat did a great job imposing their will at the rim. The game was played at a blisteringly-fast pace, and the Heat ended up taking more than twice as many shots from the restricted area than the Hawks, and a 97th percentile frequency of shots taken at the rim.

Andrew Wiggins, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Norman Powell, Pelle Larsson and Jaime Jaquez combined to make 23 of their 31 attempts at the basket, (74 percent). Those five together took eight more shots than the Hawks entire rotation combined in this game.

A huge part of this was the possession battle, where they were able to put up 19 more shot attempts than their opponent. They didn't convert well at the rim in the half-court, (52 percent), but, as we've seen in the recent stretch of losses, there's a trend of impact on the offensive glass. In this game, they out-rebounded the Hawks 13 to 5 and converted on seven of 10 put-back attempts.

Additionally, the Heat did a great job taking care of the ball, (83rd percentile turnover percentage), against a defense that isn't elite, but has multiple strong guard defenders and is great at forcing turnovers. They finished the game with an assist-to-turnover ratio that would rank No. 1 in the NBA.

This was the cherry on top of the Heat's aforementioned defense, which resulted in the Heat converting on seven of 10 shots at the basket in the fast-break and getting out in transition at an 87th percentile frequency.

Getting more high-quality looks at the rim was an early result of their shifted offensive play-style, which declined over the past few weeks. They should be able to keep it up against the Pacers, who don't turn over the ball too much but do give up the ninth-highest percentage of opponent shots coming at the rim, a high percentage of shots converted there and are not a good rebounding team, (on either end of the court).

For more Miami Heat information and conversation, check out Off The Floor.

Alexander Toledo is a contributor to Miami Heat On SI and producer/co-host of the Five on the Floor podcast, covering the Heat and NBA. He can be reached at Twitter: @tropicalblanket

What the Miami Heat can apply from their win over the Atlanta Hawks against the Indiana Pacers

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For more Miami Heat information and conversation, check out Off The Floor.

Alexander Toledo is a contributor to Miami Heat On SI and producer/co-host of the Five on the Floor podcast, covering the Heat and NBA. He can be reached at Twitter: @tropicalblanket