Observations and other notes of interest from Friday night\u2019s 128-120 victory over the Charlotte Hornets:<\/p>\n
\u2013 No, the Hornets\u2019 youth was not lost on Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Not with what Kon Knueppel, Brandon Miller and Charlotte\u2019s other recent lottery picks have delivered amid this Hornets revival.<\/p>\n
\u2013 But Spoelstra also used his pregame platform to note what the Heat have done with their youth.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With options otherwise limited on this night, with Norman Powell, Andrew Wiggins and Simone Fontecchio among those out for the Heat.<\/p>\n
\u2013 So, like many other coaches who have faced the Hornets in recent games, Spoelstra was asked pregame about the emergence of the Hornets.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s hard not to have noticed the level of basketball they\u2019ve been playing,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been one of the bigger topics in the league, and rightly so. They\u2019ve been on a heck of a run the last six weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 He added, \u201cLast time we played them, the rosters were slightly different. Miller didn\u2019t play in those games, but they\u2019ve also fortified their bench. So they\u2019re doing it on both ends.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Spoelstra said he appreciates what it takes for a young team like Charlotte to come of age.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cI think probably the thing that\u2019s unique that stands out with them is the fact that they\u2019re winning right now with a lot of young players,\u201d he said. \u201cTypically, that takes some time. And it has with them. The second half of the season, you can see their young players have gotten very familiar to how they want to play and then what impacts winning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Spoelstra likened that somewhat to the Heat\u2019s process and progress this season.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cThe two teams are somewhat similar in that regard, because we\u2019re playing some young players in our rotation, more so than we have in the past. And it\u2019s taken some time,\u201d Spoelstra said.<\/p>\n
\u2013 He added, \u201cBut we really think we\u2019re playing some winning basketball right now in the second half of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 And with that, with veteran options limited, Spoelstra again rolled with the youthful likes of Kel\u2019el Ware, Pelle Larsson, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionus and even Myron Gardner.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Before the game, Spoelstra also addressed the knee tendinitis that had Wiggins out.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cHe\u2019s dealt with it for the last handful of days, and it didn\u2019t loosen up enough today to be available,\u201d Spoelstra said, \u201cbut hopefully we can treat him and hopefully make sure it\u2019s a short-term thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 The Heat next face the Detroit Pistons on Sunday night at Kaseya Center.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With the Heat idle on Saturday and the Pistons playing in Brooklyn on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Powell (groin) still out and Wiggins now out, the Heat opened with Larsson, Gardner, Davion Mitchell, Tyler Herro and\u00a0 Bam Adebayo.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The Hornets opened with a lineup of Miles Bridges, LaMelo Ball, Moussa Diabat\u00e9, Miller and Knueppel.<\/p>\n
\u2013 It was Jaquez and Ware first together off the Heat bench.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Followed by Jakucionis.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Dru Smith making it nine deep.<\/p>\n
\u2013 At that stage, the only other players available for the Heat were two-way players Vlad Goldin and Trevor Keels.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Smith then was forced to the bench with three fouls in his first five minutes.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Smith is now one appearance from 100 for his career.<\/p>\n
\u2013 It was the 200th regular-season appearance for Jaquez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Observations and other notes of interest from Friday night\u2019s 128-120 victory over the Charlotte Hornets: \u2013 No, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3777],"tags":[7,684,473,3878,685,165,189,3880,6,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-645306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-charlotte-hornets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-charlotte","10":"tag-charlotte-hornets","11":"tag-charlottehornets","12":"tag-hornets","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-miami-heat","15":"tag-miami-heat-blog","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116188030131241760","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}