For weeks, the Miami Heat have been searching for a road statement, a victory away from Kaseya Center with substance.<\/p>\n
For the entire season, the Heat have been searching for a comeback win on the road.<\/p>\n
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Mission accomplished … and accomplished, with Friday night\u2019s 128-120 victory over the Charlotte Hornets at Spectrum Center.<\/p>\n
Rebounding from road losses last week against the Bucks and 76ers, the Heat also won for the first time this season when trailing on the road after three quarters.<\/p>\n
With their seventh victory in their last nine games, the Heat secured the season-series tiebreaker against the Hornets, having taken the first three games of the four matchups.<\/p>\n
Tyler Herro, who kept the Heat afloat early and then sparked them in the fourth quarter, closed with a season-high 33 points, going 8 of 10 on 3-pointers, with nine assists and nine rebounds, supported by 24 points and 12 rebounds from Bam Adebayo and 19 points from Jaime Jaquez Jr.<\/p>\n
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The victory came as the Heat not only remained without Norman Powell, but this time also were without Andrew Wiggins,<\/p>\n
Next up is a Sunday matchup against the East-leading Detroit Pistons at the start of a four-game homestand that has the Heat playing at Kaseya Center every other night for a week.<\/p>\n
Five Degrees of Heat from Friday night\u2019s game:<\/p>\n
\u2014 1. Game flow: The Heat led 30-27 after the first period, before the Hornets took a 61-58 lead into halftime.<\/p>\n
The Hornets then took a 101-98 lead into the fourth, with the Heat entering 1-23 when trailing after three quarters, including 0-15 in that situation on the road.<\/p>\n
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From there, a 9-0 run put the Heat up 115-108 with 5:48 to play, forcing a Hornets timeout. Later, a Herro 3-pointer helped push the Heat to a nine-point lead with 4:28 left.<\/p>\n
From there, Kon Knueppel 3-pointers got the Hornets within three, with Adebayo eventually sent to the line with 18.5 second to play and the Heat up 124-120, making both.<\/p>\n
\u2014 2. Another twist: With Powell and Wiggins out, the Heat moved to their 21st lineup of the season.<\/p>\n
That had Myron Gardner getting his fifth start, opening alongside Adebayo, Herro, Davion Michell and Pelle Larsson.<\/p>\n
The Heat are now 3-2 with Gardner as a starter.<\/p>\n
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In addition to Powell (groin) and Wiggins (knee) being out, the Heat also were without Nikola Jovic (back) and Simone Fontecchio (groin).<\/p>\n
\u2014 3. Herro for 3: Having worked to regain his range after missing a month with a rib injury, Herro not only opened 5 for 5 on 3-pointers but also was fouled on a 3-point attempt in the midst of that run, making all three of those free throws.<\/p>\n
He entered 5 of 15 from beyond the arc in his three previous games.<\/p>\n
Herro was at 27 points through three quarters, at that point making his highest-scoring game since he went for 29 on Nov. 26 against the Bucks, his previous highest-scoring game of the season.<\/p>\n
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\u2014 4. Jaquez, too: Less expected but also prolific from beyond the arc was Jaquez, who shot 4 of 6 on 3-pointers.<\/p>\n
Jaquez, a liability from beyond the arc most of the season, entered 5 of 26 from beyond the arc the previous 10 games, with no than two in any previous games this season.<\/p>\n
With his 19th point, Jaquez reached a single-season high for points over his three-year career.<\/p>\n
\u2014 5. Uneven night: Adebayo endured an uneven shooting night, unable to keep up with the 3-point pace elsewhere on the court.<\/p>\n
He opened 1 of 8 from the field and later fell to 4 of 15, closing 10 of 26<\/p>\n
The struggles also included an 0-for-5 night from beyond the arc. He went without a 3-pointer in Thursday night\u2019s loss to the Nets, after converting at least one in his previous 10 games.<\/p>\n
Adebayo entered 47 points shy of 10,000 for his career, with Dwyane Wade the lone player to score at that threshold with the Heat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For weeks, the Miami Heat have been searching for a road statement, a victory away from Kaseya Center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3778],"tags":[679,500,1179,7,473,188,572,144,24577,3012,968,295,189,3881,30690,6,558,2248,3303,1176,492],"class_list":{"0":"post-645373","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-heat","8":"tag-76ers","9":"tag-andrew-wiggins","10":"tag-bam-adebayo","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-charlotte-hornets","13":"tag-detroit-pistons","14":"tag-dwyane-wade","15":"tag-heat","16":"tag-jaquez","17":"tag-kaseya-center","18":"tag-kon-knueppel","19":"tag-miami","20":"tag-miami-heat","21":"tag-miamiheat","22":"tag-myron-gardner","23":"tag-nba","24":"tag-norman-powell","25":"tag-pelle-larsson","26":"tag-simone-fontecchio","27":"tag-the-heat","28":"tag-tyler-herro"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116188211223206810","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645373","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=645373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}