Heat beats Hornets on historic, emotional night after fire. Details and reaction
Takeaways from the Heat’s 126-108 win against the Charlotte Hornets on Friday at Kaseya Center:
▪ After producing the second-most points in a first quarter in NBA history, the Heat frittered away all of a 26-point lead before taking control late on a night Miami played without both Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro.
The evening began gloriously, as Miami stormed ahead by 20 in a 53-point first quarter. That was the most points by the Heat in any quarter in its history and the second-most points in a first quarter by any team in NBA history.
The lead grew to 64-38 before everything fell apart, at least for awhile. Charlotte unleashed a 27-2 run, closing to within one.
The Hornets tied the game twice midway through the third quarter, the first time the Heat didn’t lead since the opening seconds.
But Miami ended the third ahead 94-88 and kept control throughout the fourth, keeping its lead in double figures for the final 5:13.
Norman Powell was a big help, as usual, finishing with 25 points (10 for 20 shooting) and shaking off a sprained ankle that briefly sent him to the Heat locker room late in the second quarter. He’s the first player in Heat history to score at least 20 in five of his first six games with the franchise.
Pelle Larsson added a career-high 20 points on 8 for 11 shooting, with four rebounds.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. chipped in 18, including a thunderous dunk and three additional baskets in an eight-point fourth. He added eight rebounds and a season-high nine assists.
But with just over a minute left, Jaquez hobbled to the locker room with a sprained ankle after a collision with a Hornets player. His status for Saturday’s home game against Portland will be determined on Saturday.
“I was trying to get 10 assists and I rolled my ankle,” he said. “I’ve had worse. I’ll be all right. I’m pretty optimistic, but you really only know the next day. You don’t know until tomorrow.”
Andrew Wiggins made his first six shots during a 15-point first quarter and finished with 22.
Nikola Jovic and Simone Fontecchio each scored 10, and Davion Mitchell added five rebounds, five assists and three steals.
After making 10 of its 15 three-point attempts in the first quarter, the Heat then missed 15 of its next 16 threes a stretch that continued well into the fourth quarter.
Adebayo, who missed only four games last season, sat out for the first time this season with a sprained left big toe. He was in a walking boot, but the team is listing him as “day to day.”
The Hornets – who got 20 points from veteran guard Tre Mann and 28 from rookie forward Kon Knueppel - played without leading scorer LeMelo Ball and key contributors Collin Sexton and Brandon Miller.
▪ Two days after he saw his home burn to the ground, Erik Spoelstra found his sanctuary in basketball. His players marveled at this ability to focus.
“There are a lot of emotions,” Spoelstra said afterward. “I’m human like anybody. I’ve been so busy managing everything with my kids and preparing for the game. After the game, I just want to go home. The kids [his three children] were taken care of. I will see them tonight.”
Spoelstra was remarkably upbeat before the game, offering gratitude for the outpouring of support from the NBA community and expressing relief that nobody was injured in the inferno.
“I want to say how inspiring it was to see him be out there,” Jaquez said. “You would have never known anything tragic happened. First thing he said was he appreciates all the [well] wishes. The most important thing is his kids and family were all OK. The fact he came here with a smile on his face, excited to coach us, as if nothing happened, goes to show what kind of person he is. It was so inspiring to see him here. We thank him for being that leader for us in the locker room. We really wanted to get that win for him.”
Wiggins called it a “special game to get this win for him under the circumstances.”
“We were surprised he was willing to coach today,” Fontecchio said. “We’re like, ‘he should take one off.’ That’s what he does, his way of being. He’s always trying to stay resilient and positive. It’s pretty amazing. He said, ‘I would rather be out here with you guys. My kids wanted to come to the game so I might as well be on the bench with you.’ We appreciate it.”
Spoelstra’s uplifting approach was very much in character.
“I texted him yesterday and said, ‘I can’t even imagine what you’re going through – coming home after a long road trip and basically not finding your house,’” Fontecchio said. “It’s unbelievable. He’s got a great spirit, always positive, always trying to uplift everybody. He’s an amazing human being. He has this way to respond to whatever happens in life; it’s definitely something special.”
Jovic said that Spoelstra “didn’t want to talk a lot about [the fire]. He was trying to lock in and help us win this game, which is incredible.”
▪ The first quarter eruption continued an impressive trend. The poor rebounding continued a worrisome trend.
Miami, one of the league’s most tepid offensive teams last season, entered the game leading the league in first quarter scoring, at just over 34 per game.
That average grew Friday after the Heat had a 13-assist, no turnover quarter which featured 21 of 31 shooting and 10 for 15 on threes.
In NBA history, only Golden State had ever scored more points in a first quarter (44, against Portland, in April 2023).
The Heat – which has moved seamlessly to an up-tempo, push-the-pace style - – looked early like it might set the franchise record for points in a game (153 against New Orleans this past April).
Over the first month of the season, the Heat has produced two of the five-highest scoring games in franchise history. The Heat blitzed Memphis for 146 points on Oct. 24 and Charlotte for 144 on Oct. 28. Those rank as the third and fourth highest scoring games in Heat history.
Despite scoring just 19 in the second quarter and 22 in the third, Miami topped its 122.4 scoring average, which ranks fourth in the league.
On the flip side, the Heat was out-rebounded 57-37, marking the third time in four games that Miami was decisively beaten on the glass.
The Heat, which was out-rebounded 61-38 in Wednesday’s loss in Denver, has had particular difficulty preventing teams from rebounding their own miss. Charlotte had 19 offensive rebounds, compared to 6 for the Heat.
▪ With Adebayo out, Ware was on the court for most of the Hornets’ second-quarter avalanche and struggled much of the night before making an impact in the fourth.
Ware entered the game with a team worst minus 43 plus/minus, meaning Miami has been outscored by 43 with Ware on the floor.
On Friday, he was on the court for the Heat’s 33-24 start, but the Hornets outscored Miami by 21 points when he was on the court in the second quarter.
He closed the night at a minus three in 30 minutes.
Ware had just six rebounds on a night Charlotte crushed Miami on the boards. He missed a dunk and finished with 7 points, on 3 for 13 shooting.
On the plus side, he had three blocks early in the fourth quarter. It was his first game of the season with at least three blocked shots. And his dunk, on an alley-oop from Fontecchio, put Miami up 12 with six minutes left.
Overall, Ware will need to play better when Portland (5-3) visits Kaseya Center on Saturday night.
Spoelstra used Jovic essentially as the backup center. Besides Adebayo, Miami’s only other available center was two-way contract player Vlad Goldin, who arrived from a G-League assignment but did not play.
Miami opened the game with Ware, Wiggins, Larsson, Powell and Mitchell.
▪ The Heat got off to a good start in the third annual NBA Cup.
Miami moved to 5-4 overall and 1-0 in the first of its four Group C games. Miami’s other three group-play games are Nov. 14 at the Knicks (a game that will be televised exclusively on Amazon Prime), Nov. 21 at Chicago and Nov. 26 against Milwaukee at Kaseya Center.
Spoelstra said he was cognizant of the fact that point differential is a tiebreaker in determining what teams advance in the tournament. He said that impacted his thinking, which was why several starters played very late with the Heat comfortably ahead.
Eight teams will advance to the single-elimination knockout round – the winner of each of the six groups and two wild cards (the team from each conference with the best record in group play that finished second in its group).
Teams with the best record in group play will host quarterfinal Cup games on Dec. 9 and 10.
The semifinals and championship game will be played in Las Vegas on Dec. 13 and Dec. 16.
The 22 teams that don’t qualify for the quarterfinals will play two regular-season games on either Dec. 11 or 12 and Dec. 14 or 15 to fill out the standard 82-game schedules.
This story was originally published November 7, 2025 at 10:32 PM.
