MIAMI — Jimmy Butler scored a playoff career-high 45 points, including a personal 7-0 run in the final moments, and the Miami Heat held off the Atlanta Hawks 115-105 in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference first-round series Tuesday night.

Tyler Herro scored 15 for Miami, and Max Strus scored 14 and Gabe Vincent added 11 for top-seeded Miami, which took a 2-0 lead over the eighth-seeded Hawks.

Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 19 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter for Atlanta. Trae Young scored 25 for the Hawks, and De’Andre Hunter had 16 and John Collins finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds for the Hawks.

Butler’s previous playoff best was 40, done twice, both in the bubble when the Heat made the 2020 NBA finals. The Heat needed all of his heroics then, and they needed them all on Tuesday as well.

Bogdanovic’s 3-pointer with 3:15 left got Atlanta within 104-101.

From there, it was all Butler.

He had a dunk, a 3-pointer and another dunk — all in the span of 56 seconds — to turn things from in doubt to locked down, putting Miami up 10 with 1:20 remaining and ensuring the Heat would finish off the win.

“Just staying aggressive,” Butler said. “Taking what the defense gives me.”

As would be expected in a playoff series, pleasantries began being exchanged with more regularity. The first half featured 16 fouls by Atlanta and 14 by Miami — a season high for the Hawks, one off the season high for the Heat, and those 30 personals didn’t even include a double technical that Lowry and Hunter got for getting face-to-face.

Young picked up a technical for arguing a foul against him late in the third as well, the capper to a quarter where the Heat went from barely ahead to holders of a double-digit lead going into the final 12 minutes. He played the entire third quarter, but managed only two shots in that span — making both — and didn’t get to the foul line, while committing five turnovers in that period alone.

And in time, Miami hit its stride.

Kevin Huerter’s stepback 3-pointer with 8:59 left in the third pulled Atlanta within 64-62. The Hawks went nearly three minutes without scoring again, and the game looked very different after those three minutes.

The Heat went 4 for 4 in that stretch — 3-pointers by Butler, P.J. Tucker and Strus, with a layup by Butler in there as well — and it added up to an 11-0 run that pushed the lead out to 75-62. The margin remained at least eight points for the next 11 minutes, before Atlanta began clawing back.

Young hit Collins with a strike for a layup, and Bogdanovic’s long jumper got Atlanta within 94-90 midway through the fourth.

But the Hawks never got the lead. Butler saw to that.

GRIZZLIES 124, TIMBERWOLVES 96: Ja Morant scored 23 points and handed out 10 assists as host Memphis looked much more like the team that posted the NBA’s second-best record, routing Minnesota to even up their first-round Western Conference series at 1 apiece.

Morant went to the bench with 4:40 left to a huge ovation. He finished a rebound shy of a triple-double. Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr. each added 16 with Jackson hitting 4 of 7 from 3-point range as the Grizzlies finished with seven in double figures.

Brandon Clarke, Xavier Tillman Sr. and Ziaire Williams each had 13. Tyus Jones added 10.

Game 3 is Thursday night in Minneapolis.

Anthony Edwards, who scored 36 points in his playoff debut in Game 1, led Minnesota with 20.

NOTES

TELEVISION: The NBA playoffs have begun with no clear championship favorite, and that appears to be good news for ABC and ESPN.

The opening-round schedule of five games last weekend on the networks had more viewers than any playoff start since 2011, and its average of 4.17 million was up 32% over last year, the Nielsen company said.

Leading the way was the classic between the Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics, with 6.9 million viewers Sunday afternoon, making it the most-watched first round game since 2016, Nielsen said. Viewership peaked at 9.8 million when the Celtics hit a last-second layup to win 115-114.

MONDAY’S LATE GAME

WARRIORS 126, NUGGETS 106: Stephen Curry came off the bench for a second straight game and showed he’s healthy at last, scoring 34 points to lead host Golden State to a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven playoff series.

Nikola Jokic had 26 points and 11 rebounds before being ejected with 7 minutes left following a second technical and was held back from a referee, after his first technical came with 2:31 to go in the third. The MVP candidate’s emotions ran high all night. In the first quarter, Golden State guard Gary Payton II patted Jokic on the backside and the big man turned and came toward Payton when Curry stepped in and held the 7-footer back and Poole came in to help.

Jordan Poole started for Curry again and contributed 29 points – just missing a chance to become the first Warriors player ever to score 30 in his first two playoff games.

Klay Thompson added 21 points, and Curry shot 12 for 17 with five 3s as Denver again had no answer defensively for all of the Warriors’ dangerous perimeter threats.

The series shifts to Denver for Game 3 on Thursday night.