{"id":663991,"date":"2026-03-18T01:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/663991\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T01:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:42:16","slug":"an-analysis-of-tuesday-nights-miami-heat-charlotte-hornets-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/663991\/","title":{"rendered":"An analysis of Tuesday night’s Miami Heat-Charlotte Hornets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Observations and other notes of interest from Tuesday night\u2019s 136-106 loss to the Charlotte Hornets<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u2013 After a performance like this, yes, scoreboard watching.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Because now for the Heat, it\u2019s as much about looking behind as ahead.<\/p>\n

\u2013 With the Hornets only three games back.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Which means the Heat are only three games up on No. 10.<\/p>\n

\u2013 So, yes, watching the standings after this second straight loss.<\/p>\n

\u2013 How can the Heat not, with only 13 games to play?<\/p>\n

\u2013 And Tuesday counted a bit more, considering a team that wins a division title receives an extra potential tiebreaker advantage.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cIt definitely adds to the importance,\u201d coach Erik Spoelstra said at the morning shootaround, with the Heat still with three divisional games left (two against the Wizards and then the final night of the season at home against the Hawks). \u201cMore than anything, it\u2019s just looking at the standings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 But only looking to a degree, Spoelstra said.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cYou don\u2019t want to get overwhelmed by what other teams are doing,\u201d he said, with his team now having dropped two in a row.. \u201cIt really just matters what we\u2019re doing and what we\u2019re bringing to take care of our own business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 He added, \u201cThe East is extremely competitive. When you\u2019re training in the summer, you\u2019re really hoping for these kinds of opportunities. When games have this much meaning, both teams know what\u2019s going on. Games are really competitive. That hopefully brings out a higher level out of our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 This time, it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Tyler Herro said the appreciation for the moment is quite real.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cAt this point, every game is a big game,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery night is like a playoff night, a playoff atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 With Bam Adebayo and Andrew Wiggins out<\/a>, the Heat opened with a lineup of Kel\u2019el Ware, Pelle Larsson, Norman Powell, Davion Mitchell and Herro.<\/p>\n

\u2013 With his first assist, Powell reached a single-season career high of 130.<\/p>\n

\u2013 The Hornets opened with Kon Knueppel, Miles Bridges, Moussa Diabate, Brandon Miller and LaMelo Ball.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Simone Fontecchio entered first together off the Heat bench.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Fontecchio did not play Saturday against the Magic, but Spoelstra had to get creative with Larsson called for two early fouls.<\/p>\n

\u2013 In the void of options at center, Keshad Johnson then was third off the Heat bench, in place of Ware.<\/p>\n

\u2013 With Kasparas Jakucionis then also entering<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2013 From there, it became 10 deep when Dru Smith entered for the first time late in the third period, after being held out Saturday against the Magic.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Going in, Hornets coach Charles Lee had ample praise for the Heat offense,<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cI think it\u2019s a bunch of factors; number one is the quantity. They definitely force you to just maintain a level of discipline and a level of focus in that area,\u201d he said of the Heat attacks. \u201cGive them credit, they have good players leading it. They do it with a certain purpose and a force behind how they drive. There\u2019s a relentless kind of nature to try to get there and create open buckets, create open threes, catch-and-shoot threes, or get yourself to the free throw line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 He added, \u201cThe other aspect, I think, is just some of the movement behind it. They\u2019re slashing, they\u2019re cutting, they\u2019re opening up the elbow in certain ways, and you know, you\u2019re not able to really hold your shifts to give your partner some protection. So, you\u2019ve got to make sure you\u2019re there early and as soon as you get stuck on one of those two-way stunts, it puts you in a compromising situation where you\u2019re late to contest, and you\u2019re also going to get hit with a go-and-catch, and then you\u2019re late to a close-out as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 But not so much this time.<\/p>\n

\u2013 As is often the case on the road, Spoelstra was asked pregame about the Heat\u2019s ample use of zone defense.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s part of our defensive system, for sure,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cThe thing that I always tell our team, it\u2019s about committing to doing ridiculously tough things in this league. It doesn\u2019t matter whether we\u2019re in our man or our zone. Our man is basically our fastball.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 He added, \u201cThere are some games where we can play the whole game man. There are some games where we can play a lot of possessions of zone. The game will let us know.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Observations and other notes of interest from Tuesday night\u2019s 136-106 loss to the Charlotte Hornets: \u2013 After a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3777],"tags":[7,684,473,3878,685,165,189,3880,6,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-663991","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\/116247641822183323","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663991","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=663991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}