The Heat doesn't have to worry about losing momentum during its seven-day All-Star break.

It already lost most of it in Tuesday's ugly 76-73 home loss to Atlanta, its third defeat in three games against the Hawks.

''We took a huge step back,'' Heat guard Eddie Jones said. ``We needed to go to the break feeling good about ourselves. We said we were trying to get to nine games under .500 -- the first time in a while we would be in single digits under .500. We came out lethargic. We have to play with more attitude.''

This was rather inexcusable, considering the Hawks had lost six straight on the road by an average margin of 14.7 points, and played the closing minutes with journeymen Hanno Mottola, Ira Newble and Jacque Vaughn on the floor.

But Miami (18-29) was unable to develop an offensive rhythm or slow All-Star forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim, who scored 34 -- the most by a Heat opponent this season.

''Coach warned us,'' forward Brian Grant said. ``Any game we lose sets us back three games. This was a game we should have won.''

Down five, Miami closed to 72-69 on Rod Strickland's jumper with 50.6 seconds left. After Vaughn missed a runner, Strickland tipped in his own miss to pull the Heat to 72-71 with 17.4 seconds left.

But Jason Terry, who shot 3 for 14 from the field, hit two free throws to give him 16 points and push the Hawks ahead 74-71 with 13.7 seconds to go.

Eddie House missed a three-pointer for Miami, but Jim Jackson's tip-in -- his first basket after seven misses -- closed Atlanta's lead to 74-73 with 4.6 seconds left.

Needing to foul quickly, the Heat was fooled on the in-bounds when Mottola took the ball in the backcourt and scampered away from Alonzo Mourning, who couldn't foul him until 1.1 seconds remained.

''It was a pretty good play,'' Heat coach Pat Riley said. ``Mottola basically outran Zo. I think he surprised him.''

Mottola made both free throws, and LaPhonso Ellis didn't hit rim on a turnaround 28-footer at the buzzer.

In a way, this was an appropriate close to the worst pre-All-Star break in Riley's seven seasons in Miami.

But the Heat, which entered having won 10 of 12, thought it had gotten beyond the point of losing to bad teams at home. With a win, the Heat could have moved out of the Atlantic Division cellar.

''There's no excuse for it,'' Mourning said. ``The effort wasn't there consistently enough.''

With little margin for error to begin with, the Heat's odds of making the playoffs grew longer on a night it converted 1 of 13 three-pointers and made only 8 of 12 free throws, compared with 23 of 29 for the Hawks.

''The disparity of free throws was too difficult to overcome,'' Riley said.

Confronted with frequent double-teams, Mourning managed just 10 points (the same as Mottola) and pulled down only three rebounds. Mourning missed two free throws with 1:39 left and the Heat down five.

Jones, who had provided plenty of fourth-quarter heroics recently, missed two three-pointers in the final 2:50. Jones and Strickland each scored 16.

''They took away what had been our bread-winners -- Zo inside and Eddie,'' Grant said.

Riley doesn't want his players in a state of depression before their next game Feb. 13 vs. Orlando. ''I'm not going to play with their minds for eight days,'' he said. ``They're not happy about this. We have to deal with it.''