After the drubbing the Miami Heat laid on the Charlotte Hornets in Game 1, the Heat were back at it again Wednesday night as they comfortably won 115-103 over the Hornets to take a 2-0 lead in the series.
Advertisement
Other things to noteCharlotte Hornets Guard Nicolas Batum lays on the floor after spraining his left ankle. The Heat picked up exactly where they left off in the first game, shooting a ridiculous 75% from the field including 7-10 from behind the 3 point line.
After a franchise playoff-best first half of shooting, the Heat held on in the second half to protect home-court advantage and go up 2-0 in the best-of-seven series. There have been flaws in Charlotte’s normally stout defense, but the Heat have been scoring at what is (probably) an unsustainable rate.
Charlotte will be without small forward Nicolas Batum, the team’s second-leading scorer, because of a strained foot.
A 2-0 series deficit is bad, but losing both away games isn’t exactly unprecedented. The Hornets and Trail Blazers face long odds. That ranks seventh among playoff teams in contested-shot percentage behind the Spurs (95.2 percent), Hawks (86.8 percent), Mavericks (85.2 percent), Raptors (80.2 percent), Pacers (79.1 percent) and Grizzlies (78.9 percent).
Meanwhile, the Kemba Walker poured in a game-high 29 points for the Hornets while Al Jefferson added 25 points on 12 of 17 shooting off the bench, but they needed more scoring help from their role players. He did not return to the game.
Carroll l said it is the best he’s felt since surgery.
Game 3 often offers false hope. Using our Elo ratings (which measure a team’s strength at a given moment), we found the teams that have exceeded their regular-season expectations the most since the playoffs tipped off last weekend.
Miami scored 43 in the quarter and its 72 points in the half matched or exceeded what Game 2 losers managed Tuesday night: Boston had 72 in Atlanta, Memphis managed only 68 in San Antonio.
Through two games, the Heat posted a combined 63.4 percent effective shooting percentage. Any Hornets fan moaning that Charlotte went 1-for-16 on 3-point attempts Wednesday is telling the truth but missing the larger point.
“Their size is problem”, Hornets coach Steve Clifford said. That’s the biggest issue…. “As we move onto Charlotte, we can’t just bank down on our offense”. Hassan Whiteside was a flawless eight-for-eight from the field on the way to 17 points.
Clifford said despite the lopsided losses, he wants his team to stick its game plan. “If he’s going to shoot step-back jumpers”, Clifford said, “you can live with that”. “So Dragic makes three threes against the under and then all of a sudden, we’re overextending, we’re opening up driving gaps”.
Thunder at Mavericks, Thunder lead series 2-1, 8 p.m. EDT, ESPN.
Oklahoma City shot 56 percent from 3-point range (15 of 27) to 26 percent for the Mavericks (6 of 23). After Game 2, though, the coach kind of shrugged his shoulders. Instead used the challenge as fuel to answer back with a winning performance, and put up a hot 15 points by halftime. “We will not know anything about it until (Thursday)”. Although our model expected Miami to win by 3.9 points per game, the Heat have prevailed by an average margin of 22 a game.
Marvin Williams’ struggles continued Wednesday night. Charlotte has now lost 14 consecutive playoff games. We’ve got to keep the ball out of the middle. “We didn’t play well enough and we didn’t play with enough grit”.
Advertisement
Miami beat Charlotte in their most recent meeting this season, bumping its SU record over the last 10 meetings to 6-4. Lillard is 13 of 39. “We have to do a better job on those two guys”. They are at 1.07 in two playoff games.
