Charlotte is a formidable team and this remains a coin-flip series – the Hornets won’t have to start from 32 down when Game 2 tips off on Wednesday, as this squad still has the horses to take a game in Miami. MATCHUP CHART:ABOUT THE PISTONS (44-39, 43-38-2 ATS, 43-40 O/U): Backup rookie forward Stanley Johnson was a solid contributor in the opener with nine points and eight rebounds in 16 minutes and coach Stan Van Gundy expressed his regret that he didn’t play Johnson over Tobias Harris (nine points in 40 minutes) down the stretch. The Hornets managed a 78.4 percent on free throws while the Heat sank 76.2 percent of their free throws.
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Batum had 20 points, zero rebounds and zero assists in the first half.
There were also instances where the Hornets found easy lanes to the basket, something that could cost the Heat should Charlotte get hot from downtown. Miami shot the basketball at 57.6 percent from the floor, 50% from the three-point line, they turned the basketball over only six times, the forced Charlotte into 11 turnovers, they outrebounded Charlotte by 14 (42-28), and they scored an insane 56 points in the paint.
Making matters worse for the Hornets, their stretch 4 made little impact. Someone should’ve passed that memo along to the Charlotte Hornets before they played inside of the American Airlines Arena in their opening game of the playoffs on Sunday.
Nic Batum scored 24 points for the Hornets, who emptied the bench with 4:11 left and Miami leading by 31. Ball movement is key in establishing a rhythm and in helping build each other up.
The versatile French Guard/Forward, of Cameroonian stock, is a big part of the Hornets’ success this season and they’ll lean on him to keep propelling them towards success. We can’t expect them to take the same shots they took the other night. “If you are more anxious about yourself than the team, you may make the playoffs but you aren’t going to get far”. So the great thing that’s going to have to happen for the Cavs to advance is there’s going to have to be a hatred, there’s going to have to be a dislike that LeBron is going to need to carry versus that former jersey that he hasn’t and against his brother Dwyane Wade and against his team that he won two championships with, and vice versa.
Charlotte finished the regular season in sixth place in the Eastern Conference with a 48-34 record, the exact mark that the Boston Celtics reached with Boston edging them to fifth spot.
Working some three years removed from his last postseason appearance, a star-crossed turn with the Chicago Bulls filled with sell-outs, hospital visits and darkened rooms, Luol Deng made quite the impact in his first playoff game with the Miami Heat.
Hassan Whiteside finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds in his playoff debut. Heat guard Goran Dragic had 10 assists. The Hornets have since dropped 11 in a row.
To say the Heat hold an edge in playoff experience would be an understatement. I think we’ll bounce back well. These two were the most distinct. Facing the same postseason opponent as last time, albeit with vastly different rosters for both sides, the Hornets have their work cut out for them if they want to shake up the Eastern Conference playoff bracket.
If the short-handed Grizzlies are going to make this series even remotely interesting, they have to get Zach Randolph going.
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A big question coming into the game was how Hassan Whiteside would perform in his first playoff game.
