The Miami Heat swat the Hornets in South Beach in much needed Win.
The Miami Heat suffered an embarrassing defeat in their last game on Saturday at the hands of Philadelphia. They would need to get back on track on Monday.
The Miami Heat were probably in a state of shock after Saturday night’s debacle in Philadelphia. Although they’ve lost this season, they haven’t lost in that fashion, in that manner, and with such a lackluster effort given in fighting back. Either way, they would have a very good chance to get back on their horse on Monday.
The Miami Heat would be facing the Charlotte Hornets in South Beach on Monday, a team that they had faced and beaten in the preseason. Although the preseason isn’t quite the same as the regular season, from an intensity, strategic, and deployment of lineup perspective, the Miami Heat still probably took from that an in general look at how they matched up.
It appeared as though the Hornets had taken the most from that matchup as the game started though. Charlotte jumped out on the Heat, going up 7-0 before the Heat would ultimately score their first two points on a tough Jimmy Butler fade-away jump shot.
It was encouraging to see Butler come through early and in that scenario, as that is something that the Miami Heat have needed the most over the past few seasons and surely what we knew we had gotten in him. When things break down on the offensive end, when the Heat are in a situation such as the one described above as it took place in Monday’s game or when there is a crucial point in the game when the Heat just need a bucket, star players like Jimmy Butler can and should be able to go and get that bucket.
While the Hornets would get out to that 7-0 lead, that Miami Heat would flip the board by the 7:56 mark of the first quarter to a score of 11-10 in their favor. After that point, the Heat would never look back, dominating the game the rest of the way. The game would wind up finishing in the Miami Heat’s favor, with a score of 117-100.
Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo tied to lead the Miami Heat in scoring with 21 points apiece. Adebayo threw in 13 rebounds and five assists, while Butler also had three rebounds and seven assists. Kendrick Nunn also had 19 points, two rebounds, and four assists for the Heat.
Kelly Olynyk and Tyler Herro also got in on the scoring fun for Miami. KO had 15 points, 16 rebounds, and an assist, on 4-5 shooting from deep. Herro had 18 points, two rebounds, and an assist.
On top of the stellar overall play from the team, it was a dunk fest in the building tonight as well. Meyers Leonard and Bam Adebayo had monster slams, ones that would make Airplane Mode himself envious.
The Miami Heat are right back at it on Wednesday in a tough game on the road. They have the Houston Rockets in Houston.
That’ll be a tough one for the Heat, especially after beating them already this season, but it is needed to see where they are as a team after Saturday’s tough defeat to the 6ers. Again, it’ll be tough, but we can’t wait to see how it looks on the second go around.