Heat open their quest for a title Sunday, with Hawks in way

By TIM REYNOLDS
AP Basketball Writer

MIAMI (AP) — Regular-season successes were nice but meant little to the Miami Heat in the grand scheme of things. The Heat aren’t shy about saying what matters to them is the postseason and the pursuit of a championship. That quest truly starts Sunday when the top-seeded Heat begin an Eastern Conference first-round series against Trae Young and the eighth-seeded Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks have some injury issues after Clint Capela went down in Friday’s play-in win over Cleveland. But they also had double-digit leads on Miami in three of the four meetings between the clubs this season.