The Miami Heat sting the Charlotte Hornets in second preseason game

The Miami Heat were visiting the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday night in their second preseason game. Even without key Heat players, it wasn’t that close.

The Miami Heat played the second game of their preseason on Wednesday night against the Charlotte Hornets. In a sequence of seconds, this was also their second game in as many nights, having won the first half of a back to back set on Tuesday against the San Antonio Spurs.

Although the Heat were without Justise Winslow, Goran Dragic, and Jimmy Butler, it didn’t seem to affect what they were able to get done on the floor. Both teams got off to a solid start, but the Miami Heat started to clamp down on the defensive end toward the middle of the first quarter. They finished the first up by eight points at a score of 31-23.

The second quarter was much of the same as the Miami Heat outscored the Hornets by a score of 32-19. The Heat scored 63 points in the half to close the first half with a 63-42 lead. They were led by Dion Waiters, who scored 19 points in the first half on four of five shooting from the three-point line, along with four assists.

Waiters was not alone in his first-half efforts though as Bam Adebayo had eight points, six rebounds, and two assists as well in the first half. The third quarter got a bit sloppy for the Heat. This is the quarter in which they accumulated quite a few of their 21 total team turnovers on the evening.

The Miami Heat won’t and shouldn’t look to make that a habit, as they allowed 22 points off of those turnovers, although they did have quite a few younger players in the game at the time. Even with the turnovers though, the Heat managed to outscore the Hornets 27-21 to take a 90-63 lead to the fourth. It was an underwhelming close to the game, to say the least.

The Miami Heat were outscored 31-18, but the game was so far out of hand by the time the Hornets made the run that would have possibly set up the run to get back in the game, it was a moot point. The Miami Heat played a pretty good game, even without several key players.

Dion Waiters eventually led all scorers with the original 19 points from the first half. Duncan Robinson had fourteen points, three rebounds, and an assist, on four for nine shooting from three. Bam closed with his first half line intact of eight points, six rebounds, and two assists.

Kendrick Nunn had an impressive showing with a thirteen point, two rebounds, seven assist evening, although he only shot one of seven from deep. Tyler Herro wasn’t as explosive as he was against the Spurs, but he had a decent showing as well, putting up eight points, six rebounds, and three assists, on one for three shooting from three across 25 minutes of action.

One thing that really stood out was the play of former Miami Hurricane Davon Reed. He is one of the players in the two-way contract competition that the Miami Heat have going on throughout the preseason. He had a few memorable plays tonight, but one was a pull-up three-pointer off of the dribble that really impressed me.

Even more impressive, he finished with fourteen points and nine rebounds, on four of five shooting from the three, and across only 19 minutes of action. If he can keep showing this with consistency, he not only has a chance to earn one of the two-way deals that the Heat have available, but that is a skill that could possibly be used by the big club at some point.

All in all, it was another good showing by the Miami Heat. Preseason doesn’t always translate into regular-season success, but after two games, something is starting to feel different here. The things that were real areas of concern for the Heat on last season may now be strengths, or neutral at the very least, and that fact alone is a reason for excitement about the potential of this team.