Hawks guard Trae Young drives to the rim while being defended by Miami’s Max Strus, right, and forward Jimmy Butler during Atlanta’s 116-105 win in a play-in game Tuesday in Miami. Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press

MIAMI — Trae Young scored 25 points, Clint Capela grabbed 21 rebounds and the Atlanta Hawks grabbed the No. 7 in the Eastern Conference playoffs by beating the Miami Heat 116-105 in a play-in tournament game Tuesday night.

Dejounte Murray added 18 points for the Hawks, who avenged a five-game Round 1 loss to Miami last season and earned an East first-round matchup with Boston that will start Saturday.

Kyle Lowry scored 33 points — his highest-scoring game in his two Miami seasons — for the Heat, who will host either Toronto or Chicago on Friday to decide the No. 8 seed and a spot against top overall seed Milwaukee in Round 1. The Raptors and Bulls play Wednesday; the winner of Friday’s game opens the series against the Bucks on Sunday.

Tyler Herro scored 26 for Miami, and Jimmy Butler finished with 21.

For the Hawks, four reserves – Saddiq Bey, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Onyeka Okongwu and Jalen Johnson – combined for 53 points.

The Hawks improved to 3-0 all-time in play-in tournament games; that’s the best mark in the league, one that New Orleans can match when it plays host to Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.

And they earned this one on the boards. Atlanta outrebounded Miami 63-39, including 22-6 on the offensive glass that keyed a 26-6 edge in second-chance points.

The Hawks took two timeouts in the first 3:53 of the third quarter, as most of what was a 24-point lead with 2:37 left in the first half — 63-39 Atlanta was the margin — got whittled away, and fast.

Miami cut the margin to 15 by halftime, then opened the third quarter on a 16-6 run. Add it all up, and it was a 27-8 run in about 7 minutes of play to get the Heat within 71-66.

But the Hawks had an answer then, and every other time the Heat made a run. The Atlanta lead was 13 again going into the fourth, and when Miami was within six midway through the final quarter, the Hawks scored five straight to restore a double-digit edge.

NOTES

HORNETS: Charlotte isn’t expected to be big spenders in free agency this summer even if Michael Jordan sells the team.

The Hornets are a projected $39 million under the NBA salary cap for next season – which ranks in the top 10 in the league in terms of available spending money – but the team plans to focus on re-signing their own players and adding others through the draft and “savvy trades,” according to general manager Mitch Kupchak.

“Although we have a lot of financial flexibility, we don’t typically go big-game hunting with our free agent money,” Kupchak said Tuesday.

He then added, “We’re going to use that to sign back players.”

The Hornets (27-55) finished with the fourth-worst record in the league, so they’re guaranteed to pick somewhere between 1 and 8 depending on the outcome of the May 16 draft lottery. Charlotte has five draft picks in all, including two in the first round, although Kupchak indicated it’s unlikely the team will use them all.

The Hornets haven’t won a playoff series in more than two decades, and Jordan has been criticized at times by fans for not spending enough money to get big-name free agents.

Last month, Jordan’s family office released a statement saying the six-time NBA champion is considering selling another portion of the team to Hornets minority owner Gabe Plotkin. While it’s unclear if Jordan will give up his majority stake in the team, Kupchak indicated it is largely irrelevant in terms of the Hornets building process.

New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson, center, is out with a hamstring injury and will not be available when the Pelicans play Oklahoma City in the play-in tournament. David Zalubowski/Associated Press

PELICANS: All-Star forward Zion Williamson said he won’t return to the New Orleans Pelicans’ lineup until he’s confident his body will respond well to the way he wants to play.

“Physically, I’m fine,” Williamson, who injured his right hamstring in early January, said. “Now it’s just a matter of when I feel like Zion.

“I can pretty much do everything, but it’s just a matter of the level that I was playing at before my hamstring,” Williamson continued. “I don’t want to go out there and be in my own head and affect the team when I can just be on the sideline supporting them more, because I know myself. If I was to go out there, I would be in my head. I would hesitate on certain moves and it could affect the game.”

Williamson’s extended absence looms particularly large now, with New Orleans hosting Oklahoma City in a do-or-die, Western Conference play-in game on Wednesday night. The loser is done for the season while the winner survives to play at least once more on Friday night for the right to enter the first-round of the playoffs as the conference’s eighth seed — and face top-seeded Denver.

Williamson said he has to overcome “a little bit of a mental battle” because of a setback in his recovery that prevented him from participating in the All-Star Game.

FORMER NBA All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins joined the Guaynabo Mets of Puerto Rico’s professional basketball league on Tuesday.

The Guaynabo Mets said in a statement that the 32-year-old free agent Cousins “still has what it takes to play in the NBA”, but “is taking his talents to basketball-crazy Puerto Rico.”