Takeaways: Heat’s nightmare continues, blowing another big lead in home loss to struggling Hornets
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 105-102 loss to the Charlotte Hornets (16-48) on Monday night at Kaseya Center to fall to 0-3 on its five-game homestand. The Heat (29-35) continues this stretch at home on Wednesday against the Los Angeles Clippers:
The Heat’s nightmare continues, blowing another double-digit lead to drop its fourth straight game.
After blowing a 17-point lead in Saturday’s home loss to the Chicago Bulls, the Heat ran into the same nightmare on Monday.
The Heat led the Hornets by as many as 17 points in Monday’s first half, pulled ahead by 11 with 6:47 left in the fourth quarter ... and still lost to the team with the NBA’s third-worst record.
“Just a tough loss,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said. “We got to find a way to get ourselves out of this hole. This isn’t fun for anybody.”
The Heat’s inability to hold on to leads is turning into a fatal flaw.
The Heat has now blown a fourth-quarter lead in eight of its last nine losses and in a total of 15 losses this season. Only the Minnesota Timberwolves entered Monday with more blown fourth-quarter leads (16 blown fourth-quarter leads) than the Heat this season.
The Heat also has now blown a double-digit lead in 17 losses this season. That’s the second-most such collapses in the NBA this season behind only the Utah Jazz (18 blown double-digit leads).
After the Heat went ahead by 11 points with 6:47 to play, the Hornets closed the game on a 28-14 run to complete their comeback.
The Heat had a chance to stave off the Hornets’ comeback multiple times, pulling ahead by three on a Duncan Robinson three-pointer with 2:45 left in the fourth quarter and taking a one-point lead on a midrange jumper from Herro with one minute remaining in the fourth quarter.
But after Herro’s jumper put the Heat ahead, Miles Bridges made a clutch three to give the Hornets a two-point advantage with 41.5 seconds to play.
Then after Herro missed a three and Bam Adebayo didn’t convert on a layup on the Heat’s next possession, the Hornets added to their lead with a Mark Williams dunk in transition to pull ahead by four points with 19.6 seconds left.
The Heat still had an opportunity to send the game to overtime, finding itself with the ball and trailing by three points two times in the final seconds.
But Adebayo air-balled what would have been a game-tying three with 6.9 seconds remaining.
The Hornets then committed a bad turnover on the ensuing inbounds pass to give the Heat another chance to force overtime.
Herro couldn’t take advantage, though, as his three-point shot bounced off the front of the rim as the final buzzer sounded.
The Hornets won despite shooting 11 of 44 (25 percent) from three-point range in part because they outscored the Heat 22-14 at the free-throw line and won the possession battle by totaling 19 points off Miami’s 16 turnovers. Charlotte committed just 10 turnovers on Monday.
Adebayo (23 points), Herro (21 points) and Andrew Wiggins combined for 63 points for the Heat. But the rest of the Heat’s roster combined to score just 39 points.
Bridges led the Hornets’ comeback with a game-high 35 points. He scored 13 points in the game-deciding fourth quarter.
LaMelo Ball finished with just 15 points on 5-of-21 shooting from the field and 2-of-12 shooting from three-point range for the Hornets.
The Heat is now six games under the .500 mark for the first time since the 2020-21 season.
“Sometimes you get tested in a way that you don’t want to be tested in this league,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “And you can fold the tent or you just keep on forging and forging and forging. And that’s what our group is going to do.”
The Heat lost the game when Adebayo wasn’t on the court.
Adebayo recorded his fourth double-double in the last five games, totaling 23 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists in Monday’s loss as part of another standout individual performance. The Heat outscored the Hornets by seven points in the 38 minutes that Adebayo played.
The problem is the Heat was outscored by 10 points in the 10 minutes that Adebayo was on the bench Monday.
It was a rough game for Heat rookie Kel’el Ware, who starts alongside Adebayo but also plays as the Heat’s center when Adebayo is resting. Ware closed Monday’s loss with two points on 1-of-6 shooting from the field and 0-of-2 shooting on threes, five rebounds, three assists and one block while posting a negative plus/minus of minus 12 in 23 minutes.
Monday is just the continuation of Adebayo’s best stretch of the season, as he entered the contest averaging 22.9 points, 9.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.3 steals per game while shooting 57.1 percent from the field and 10 of 29 (34.5 percent) on threes in 10 games since the All-Star break.
But unfortunately for Adebayo and the Heat, that production hasn’t led to wins. Miami is now just 4-7 since the All-Star break.
With the Heat as healthy as it has been in a few weeks, it appears the rotation is starting to stabilize. But that hasn’t translated to wins yet.
The Heat was able to use its preferred post-trade starting lineup of Davion Mitchell, Herro, Wiggins, Adebayo and Ware on Monday for the second straight game
It marked the seventh time that the Heat has used this starting lineup this season, but it’s just 2-5 in those games.
The Heat then went with a bench rotation of Haywood Highsmith, Duncan Robinson, Terry Rozier, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Pelle Larsson against the Hornets. This is the same bench unit the Heat used in Saturday’s loss to the Bulls, except Larsson played on Monday after not playing on Saturday.
The only Heat players unavailable for Monday’s game were Alec Burks (lower back pain), Josh Christopher (G League), Nikola Jovic (broken right hand) and Dru Smith (left Achilles surgery).
The Hornets were without Tre Mann (disc herniation), Brandon Miller (right wrist ligament repair), Josh Okogie (left hamstring strain), Tidjane Salaun (G League), KJ Simpson (G League) and Grant Williams (right ACL repair) against the Heat.
Monday’s loss sinks the Heat deeper into play-in tournament territory.
With the NBA’s play-in tournament featuring the seventh-through-10th-place teams competing for the final two playoff seeds in each conference, the Heat remains in ninth place in the Eastern Conference.
But with the Atlanta Hawks winning Monday, the Heat is now 1.5 games behind the seventh-place Hawks (31-34) and percentage points behind the eighth-place Orlando Magic (30-36).
Any hope the Heat had of earning a top-six seed in the East and avoiding the play-in is pretty much gone, sitting 6.5 games behind the sixth-place Detroit Pistons (36-29).
How is the play-in tournament structured?
The seventh-place team in each conference hosts the eighth-place team in a play-in game during the week of April 14. The winner of this matchup earns the seventh playoff seed.
The ninth-place team in each conference hosts the 10th-place team in another play-in game that week. The loser of this matchup is eliminated from playoff contention, while the winner of this matchup goes on the road to take on the loser of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in game later that week for the right to the eighth playoff seed.
The Heat has just 18 regular season games left to play.
“We got to keep a positive mindset,” Adebayo said. “Once you let the negativity get in, that’s when it starts to become more than what it is.”
Another really tough stretch is ahead for the Heat.
Following Monday’s loss to the struggling Hornets, the Heat’s next six games come against teams with a winning record.
The Heat hosts the Clippers on Wednesday and Boston Celtics on Friday before traveling to take on the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday and New York Knicks on March 17. Then the Heat returns home to face the Detroit Pistons on March 19 and Houston Rockets on March 21.
If the first five months of the season are any indication, that’s not a good thing.
The Heat holds an underwhelming 9-23 record this season in games against teams currently with a winning record. Miami is just 2-13 in those games since Jan. 1, with its only such wins during that span coming against the Golden State Warriors on Jan. 7 and Indiana Pacers on Feb. 28.
“We have a very tough minded group and that’s what we need right now,” Spoelstra said. “Even some veterans in the locker room or a veteran coach like myself, you just realize how tough it is to win in this league. On any given night, it is a challenge and we just have to stay together and figure this out.”
This story was originally published March 10, 2025 at 10:10 PM.
