But that was when the Heat had LeBron and Charlotte, named Bobcats then, had current Heat forward Josh McRoberts on the team.
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The Hornets need to play to their strengths to win this series.
Vucevic played 20 minutes Wednesday after he missed the preceding game with a sore groin muscle.
Also, you won’t have very long to wait for the Playoffs since the Hornets and Heat play game 1 on Sunday, April 17. It’s the first postseason matchup between Miami and Charlotte since the Heat got an opening-round sweep in 2014, though both teams have changed mightily since.
“Chris talked today to us, as a team”, Heat guard Dwyane Wade said. “I think we’re capable of playing with them and capable of beating them too”. The Orlando Magic are 30-21 when they put up triple digits.
Whiteside is the league’s leading shot blocker with 3.7 blocks per game, and as a result, the Heat are the league’s best shot blocking team.
Charlotte head coach Steve Clifford has done an excellent job with this season, and should probably be in the NBA’s Coach of the Year conversation. “The playoffs are different”.
With Wade (152 career playoff starts), Haslem (84 career playoff starts) Joe Johnson (81 career playoff starts), Amar’e Stoudemire (60 careeer playoff starts) and Luol Deng (42 career playoff starts), the Heat have over 555 games of combined playoff experience on its active playoff roster – much more than Charlotte (237 career playoff games, 123 playoff starts). The Hornets are fighters and play aggressively so if they can handle the pressure and play at their best they can beat Miami on Sunday.
“Walker was Charlotte”s top scorer in that series, even though the Heat basically blitzed him with a double-team every time he got the ball and dared anyone else to score. In addition to Zeller, Al Jefferson should keep Whiteside busy.
Charlotte’s success in this series could largely be determined by the health and effectiveness of shooting guard, Nicolas Batum, who suffered a sprained ankle in the Hornets’ April 11 road win over Boston. “I was hurt earlier but now I’m back and my rhythm is back”.
After having the worst three-point shooting percentage in the league previous year and now the 8th best, it is no wonder their offensive efficiency has jumped from 97.6 to 104.9 – or 27th to 9th. “I’m just happy to be in the postseason against anybody”. But the Hornets closed out the game strong to finish the season 30-11 at home.
“He wants to win and he’s going to do whatever it takes to win a game”. “It’s going to be a good series”.
“They have their little thing that they do – different flip shots and finishing shots”, Clifford said. “But when people say the iso’s gone … the iso is a big part of playoff basketball”.
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And although D-Wade can never be overlooked and has a new and talented cast around him, this Heat team is nowhere near the colossus it was a couple of years ago when it made the NBA Finals for four straight seasons and won two. “Really all year we got everybody’s best shot, ” Curry said.
