NBA Round up - Depleted Heat down Hawks, Morant sinks Wolves in thriller

Victor Oladipo led the depleted Miami Heat to a series-clinching 97-94 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday as Ja Morant produced a dazzling late scoring spree to give Memphis a thrilling win over Minnesota in the NBA playoffs.

Miami, missing injured stars Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry, produced a superb defensive performance to shut down Atlanta and advance to an Eastern Conference semi-final series against either Philadelphia or Toronto.

Oladipo, who only returned to action in March after an 11-month injury layoff, was handed his first start of the playoffs by Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.

The 29-year-old two-time All-Star repaid that faith with a 23-point display alongside Bam Adebayo, who finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds.

The win marked a fairytale return to centre stage for Oladipo, whose career has been decimated by injuries and surgeries over the past three years.

Oladipo was sidelined for nearly a year after undergoing surgery to repair a ruptured quadriceps tendon in May last year. He had undergone surgery to treat the same problem in January 2019.

"There's nothing I can't handle," Oladipo said after Tuesday's win.

"There's nothing I haven't gone through. At the end of the day I feel like I can come back and get through anything.

"So when they told me I needed to start tonight, I just stepped up to the plate and did everything I could to help my team win... this is only the beginning."

Adebayo took pride with a Miami defensive performance that restricted Hawks star Trae Young to just 11 points. De'Andre Hunter led the Atlanta scoring with 35 points.

"We knew it was going to be a fight to the end, we just had to finish it with our defense," Adebayo said. "Defense wins championships."

- Morant magic sinks Wolves - In