After the Miami Heat blitzed the Charlotte Hornets’ defense in Games 1 and 2, they went into Charlotte in Game 3 facing a Hornets team without Nicolas Batum.
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“I told Kemba to take us home”, Lin said. Dwayne Wade scored 17 and Hassan Whiteside added 13 points and 18 rebounds for the Heat, who will try to rebound on the road in game four on Monday. Whiteside, who was limited by foul issues and a bruised thigh, had his worst game of the series with eight points, seven rebounds, three blocks and three turnovers in 25 minutes.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ There is home Heat and then there is this. Whiteside would dominate in game one with 21 points, 11 rebounds, and a +11 point differential, during his 26 minutes the floor.
Kevin Durant scored 33 points and Steven Adams had 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Thunder, who open their series with the Spurs on Saturday.
The Thunder are one win away from completing the job against the Dallas Mavericks after a 119-108 win put them 3-1 up in the series.
Joe Johnson led Miami with 16 points, while Luol Deng had 15.
Several Miami Heat players were disappointed to what they perceived as “lopsided officiating” during game 4. This proved costly because for rest of the game everyone was cold, resulting in the Heat only scoring 80 points which was huge because the team had averaged 119 points per game in the first two games of the series.
“When you have two first-ballot Hall of Famers…. and they both say, ‘Post Frank, ‘ ” Clifford joked, “you have to post Frank”.
The Los Angeles Clippers didn’t just lose Game 4 of their first-round playoff series with the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night at the Moda Center.
Going into the final period the Indiana Pacers were shooting 39.3% – and they finished the game having connected on 36.5% of their shots from the field. Even though Lin helped the Hornets secure defensive stops down the stretch, Walker provided the finishing touch with 11 consecutive points in the fourth quarter after Miami had cut the lead to two with 6:07 left. Aminu made 11 of 20 shots from the field, including six of 10 from 3-point range.
Besides an outstanding performance on the offensive end, Lin was a thorn in the side of Miami point guard, Goran Dragic, for much of the night.
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The Heat have been two different teams in the playoffs depending on the venue and will hope for a return to form on offense when the series shifts back to Miami for Game 5 on Wednesday. The Heat turned the ball over 17 times in the loss.
