With the Miami Heat’s near 20-point comeback attempt against the Milwaukee Bucks falling short in the previous game, they found themselves on the other side of containing a large lead the next night. In a back-to-back set that saw the Heat travel to face the Charlotte Hornets, they got the job done. But it wasn’t easy.
Miami wound up securing the clutch win with a final score of 98-94, although they allowed a Hornets comeback effort of their own after winning by a 20+ point margin. Led by Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson offensively, the Heat faced a 17-point edge entering the final quarter. A few LaMelo Ball plays sparked a run for Charlotte, until Herro stepped up with answers on both ends.
He knocked down a huge go ahead 3-pointer in the final seconds of the game, and responded by earning a crucial steal on the other end in the following Hornets possession. It was an impressive bounce back performance following a few poor shooting nights for Herro, finishing with a team-high 27 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists on 11/22 shooting (50%). Miami outscored Charlotte by 9 points in his minutes.
Coach Erik Spoelstra utilized the majority of his depth tonight by going with a four-man bench rotation of Terry Rozier, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Pelle Larsson and Kel’el Ware. Alec Burks also saw some slight run, but only played a total of six minutes. After experiencing back spasms during the Heat’s last game, Kevin Love sat this one out, which opened up some Ware minutes in relief of Bam Adebayo as the backup big man.
However, Love is not the only one now dealing with a back issue, as Jimmy Butler was shut down prior to the start of the fourth quarter with back tightness of his own. He finished with a pedestrian 6 points in 25 minutes, and looked stiff throughout his playing time.
Butler’s status heading into Friday night’s game against the Toronto Raptors is very much in the air.
It was next man up for Miami tonight and Herro was there to save the day. Adebayo was quiet offensively with 8 points, but proved just how impactful he still is by totaling a 10 rebounds and 10 assists double-double. It was a relatively quiet offensive night from the rest of the rotation as well, outside of Duncan Robinson’s 22 points on 7/12 shooting and 6/9 from 3-point range.
The Heat shot more efficiently than the Hornets overall, going 45% from the field compared to their 38%. They also shot 38% on 14/31 attempts from 3-point range as a team to the Hornets 33%. Most of that comes from LaMelo Ball struggles, who led all scorers with 32 points but attempted 35 shots to do so. With the rebounding battle even across both teams, Miami separated themselves in the foul shooting department. They went 18/22 (82%) with the Hornets only going 3/8 (38%) at the charity stripe.
They will now travel back to South Florida to open a two-game stretch against the Toronto Raptors, with hopes of getting over the .500 mark for the first time since starting with a 3-2 record this season.
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in other games…wolves were losing, then winning, then eventually lost vs kings. not getting pretty in Minni 4 game losing streak…can we get Ant? asking for a friend
Important win, after almost letting the hornets. This team has issues, but I’ll take the W all day. The boy wonder is the real deal and his shotmaking was marvelous. Also had a clutch steal. Duncan had really good game too. Lastly congrats to ware winning the game with his first pair of free-throw of the season. HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!
This game got really ugly, but it’s always nice to come away with a w. All games are important, as we found out last season. However, it doesn’t change the status of the team.