After a third straight win, the Miami Heat are back on the road to face LaMelo Ball and the surging Hornets. (Mandatory credit: Imagn Images)

As the Miami Heat continue their playoff push with just 19 games remaining, they are starting to slowly but surely hit their stride. Even with Norman Powell injured, too.

Miami is coming off of three straight wins, including winners of seven of their last 10 games. They just swept a 3-0 homestand and will now head on the road to hopefully keep things going against the Charlotte Hornets.

The Hornets are surging as one of the hottest teams in the league recently. They have emerged as a play-in team after a slow start to begin the year, trailing the Heat by just two games as the ninth seed and a 32-31 overall record. This Friday night and second leg of a back-to-back matchup for Miami will be significant on the Eastern Conference standings.

Charlotte is coming off a resounding win over the second seed Boston Celtics in their previous game and have also won seven of their last 10 like Miami. Led by the efforts of Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro and Kel’el Ware in Powell’s absence recently, the Heat are currently at five games above the .500 mark. Ware is coming off a historic performance last night where he became the first player in Heat history to record a 10-10-5-5 statline. He has been super impactful and playing with force on both ends after finally buying-in to his bench role under coach Erik Spoelstra.

Can Miami’s recent success be enough to hold off LaMelo Ball’s Hornets? Let us know in the comments!

Injury Report (at the time of this publishing):

Charlotte Hornets:

Tidjane Salaun (calf) — OUT

PJ Hall (g-league) — OUT

Liam McNeeley (g-league) — OUT

Antonio Reeves (g-league) — OUT

Miami Heat:  

Projected Starting 5 (subject to change):

Charlotte Hornets:

LaMelo Ball, G

Brandon Miller, G

Kon Knueppel, F

Miles Bridges, F

Moussa Diabate, C

Miami Heat:

Davion Mitchell, G

Tyler Herro, G

Pelle Larsson, F

Andrew Wiggins, F

Bam Adebayo, F/C

Broadcast Info:

Tipoff: 7:00 PM EST

TV: FanDuel Sports Network Sun (Eric Reid & John Crotty)

Radio: AM 560 Sports WQAM & The HEAT Radio Network (Jason Jackson)

Spanish Radio: WAQI 710 AM & The HEAT Spanish Radio Network (José Pañeda)

Come back to Hot Hot Hoops at game time to join our GameThread and chat about the game live with other Heat fans!

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