Takeaways from another close game for the Heat, this one an overtime win over the Hornets
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 117-112 overtime win over the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday night at FTX Arena. The Heat (5-7) continues its four-game homestand with another matchup against the Hornets (3-10) on Saturday:
Even against a struggling and injury-depleted opponent, the Heat had some late-game issues but still found a way to hold on for the overtime victory.
The Hornets have dropped seven straight games amid their early-season injury issues. Charlotte was without starters LaMelo Ball (sprained ankle) and Gordon Hayward (shoulder contusion), and a key member of its bench rotation in Cody Martin (quad soreness).
To make the Hornets’ situation even more challenging on Thursday, they were playing on the second night of a back-to-back after falling to the Portland Trail Blazers in Charlotte on Wednesday night. Meanwhile, the Heat was coming off two idle days after last playing on Monday.
It looked like the Heat was going to run away with the win, ahead by as many as 15 points in the first half and then entering the fourth quarter ahead by 12 points.
But the Hornets opened the final period on a 22-6 run to storm back and take a four-point lead with 5:48 to play. Charlotte’s fourth-quarter lead marked its first lead since pulling ahead 3-0 in the opening minute of the game.
The Heat still found itself with a chance to win the game with possession of the ball and the game tied at 104 with 26.5 seconds to play. But Jimmy Butler was called for a questionable offensive foul with 5.2 seconds left that the Heat could not challenge because it had no timeouts remaining.
Hornets guard Terry Rozier then missed what would have been a game-winning three-pointer as the final buzzer sounded, sending the contest to overtime.
The Heat was outscored 31-19 in the fourth quarter, as it watched its 12-point lead at the start of the period disappear. Miami shot just 1 of 6 (16.7 percent) on threes and Charlotte shot 13 of 23 (56.5 percent) from the field in the fourth quarter.
The Hornets again had a chance to escape with the win in overtime, with the ball and trailing by just one point with 14.8 seconds left in the extra period. But Hornets forward Kelly Oubre Jr. was called for traveling on the crucial possession with 13.1 seconds remaining.
Heat guard Gabe Vincent was then fouled on the ensuing inbounds pass, making both free throws to extend the lead to three with nine seconds to play.
The Hornets had one final opportunity to extend the game, but Rozier’s heavily contested three-pointer that would have tied the game hit off the side of the backboard.
Vincent was then again fouled and made both free throws to push the Heat’s lead to five with 3.8 seconds left to seal the win for the Heat.
“I thought it was really important for us to go to OT and deal with the frustration and then have to mentally reset, emotionally reset to play five more minutes,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I thought we were very good in that overtime.
“We’ll continue to work and get better, but I saw a lot of positives tonight and I love it when your team has to go through the context of close games and pressure and dealing with leads and figuring out how to hold on to leads and then we had to play from behind also down the stretch. I thought we had to show some grit and figure some things out.”
It’s been a tough start to the season for the Hornets, which entered with the NBA’s third-worst offensive rating, 15th-worst defensive rating and fifth-worst net rating. Charlotte has been outscored by 83 points during its current seven-game losing skid.
Butler put together a masterful performance to lead the Heat to the much-needed win.
Butler was efficient and effective, finishing with a season-high 35 points on 11-of-19 shooting from the field and 13-of-15 shooting from the foul line, 10 rebounds and eight assists in 42 minutes.
Butler was especially dominant in the second half, scoring 26 points in the final two quarters and overtime.
In the third quarter, Butler recorded 13 points on 2-of-3 shooting from the field and 9-of-11 shooting from the foul line.
In the fourth quarter, Butler scored 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field.
“Jimmy was obviously sensational, particularly when we went down in the fourth quarter,” Spoelstra said. “He really put his imprint on those last few minutes in the fourth quarter and really willed a lot of our offensive possessions. Really took some pressure off of us on the other end.”
The Heat outscored the Hornets by 11 points in the 42 minutes that Butler played on Thursday, but was outscored by six points in the 11 minutes he was on the bench.
Butler was one of six Heat players to finish with double-digit points.
Adebayo contributed 18 points, 14 rebounds and four assists.
Duncan Robinson scored 14 points off the bench.
Max Strus recorded 12 points despite shooting just 2 of 11 on threes.
Vincent added 12 points, four rebounds and two assists off the bench.
Kyle Lowry finished with 10 points on 3-of-6 shooting from the field, three rebounds and three assists.
“We’re a very good team when we want to be on both sides of the ball,” Butler said. “I think sometimes we think we’re too good and that’s when leads slip away. But that’s OK. We got a W tonight, so I’ll take it. We will be better. This is a win streak.”
This marked the fifth straight Heat game that has come down to the final seconds.
So many of the Heat’s games have come down to the final minutes in the first month of the season. Nine of Miami first 12 games have been clutch games, which is defined as one that has a margin of five points or fewer inside the final five minutes of the fourth quarter.
Through the first 12 games last season, Miami had played only five clutch games.
“I mean, we’re not trying to have that happen,” Adebayo said of all the Heat’s close games. “But it makes the game interesting. But all in all, we want to continue to build these habits. Going through these games, it helps us in the long run. It’s great experience. Being able to get this one is big for us.”
The Heat’s previous four games before Thursday also came down to the final seconds.
In Monday’s loss to the Trail Blazers, Portland won 110-107 on a game-winning three-pointer from Josh Hart as the final buzzer sounded.
In last Friday’s 101-99 loss to the Indiana Pacers, Heat guard Tyler Herro missed what very likely would have been a game-winning three-pointer with 1.3 seconds to play.
In the Heat’s 110-107 win over the Sacramento Kings on Nov. 2, Herro hit a game-winning three-pointer with 2.5 seconds to play.
And in the Heat’s 116-109 win over the Golden State Warriors on Nov. 1, Miami broke a 109-109 tie by closing the game on a 7-0 run in the final two minutes.
“I say this respectfully, but in the majority of the games — three-plus quarters in these last four games — I’ve felt like we’ve played better than our opponent and then we’ve dropped some of these leads and you have to go through all the emotions and detail on both ends and then find a way to figure it out,” Spoelstra said. “I think this is an important breakthrough early on in the season just to continue have these kind of games and then find a way to win.”
One thing the Heat has done well this season is force turnovers. That trend continued.
The Heat has had plenty of issues on both ends of the court during its slow start to the season. But one thing it has consistently done well through the first three weeks of the schedule is force turnovers.
Miami entered Thursday with the NBA’s third-highest opponent turnover percentage, forcing teams into turnovers on 17.2 percent of their possessions.
The Heat’s disruptive defense was again on display Thursday, as the Hornets committed 21 turnovers. Miami capitalized on those mistake to score 30 points off Charlotte’s turnovers.
The Heat closed with a 30-10 edge in points off turnovers.
“It’s part of our identity that we really want to be disruptive and get teams out of their comfort zone in a lot of different ways, which requires a big energy and focus commitment to be able to be active and get our hands on balls, deny passes, play multiple schemes,” Spoelstra said. “That’s our lifeblood defensively.”
Forcing turnovers has been a big part of the Heat’s winning formula in recent years, and that has carried into this season. Miami closed each of the previous two seasons in the top five in opponent turnover percentage.
With Herro out for a second straight game because of a sprained left ankle, the Heat again shortened the rotation to eight players.
The Heat has typically used a nine-man rotation early this season. But with Herro out, Spoelstra opted to tighten the rotation to eight players instead of replacing him in the rotation with a developmental player like third-year forward Haywood Highsmith or rookie forward Nikola Jovic.
Strus replaced Herro in the starting lineup alongside Lowry, Butler, Caleb Martin and Adebayo. The Heat’s bench rotation included Vincent, Robinson and Dewayne Dedmon.
That left Highsmith, Jovic, Udonis Haslem and Dru Smith as the only available Heat players who did not play in Thursday’s game.
Along with Herro, the Heat was without Jamal Cain (G League assignment), Victor Oladipo (left knee tendinosis) and Omer Yurtseven (left ankle impingement) against the Hornets.
Oladipo and Yurtseven have yet to play this regular season, which has tested the Heat’s depth especially when others have been out.
This story was originally published November 10, 2022 at 10:27 PM.
