LaMelo Ball made the go ahead layup and Miles Bridges made the game winning block as the Charlotte Hornets beat the Miami Heat in an instant classic to stay alive in the play-in 127-126.
The Summary
The game started at a frenetic pace inside a buzzing Hive. LaMelo Ball scored nine of the first 12 Hornets points in a back and forth beginning. Charlotte started inching ahead until they started going cold late in the first. They led by two after one.
A pivotal play happened early in the second quarter. LaMelo drove against Simone Fontecchio, who leaned into LaMelo’s back and knocked him over as he drove past. When LaMelo fell, he reached out and tripped a backpedaling and stumbling Bam Adebayo. Adebayo landed hard on his tailbone and needed help getting off the floor. He wouldn’t return to the game.
The teams traded punches throughout the second quarter. A lot of threes were shot. A lot of offensive rebounds were grabbed. Miles Bridges scored a few nice buckets as part of a 15 point first half. LaMelo hit a step back three from near the Hornet wing at mid court to have 17 first half points of his own. After some empty possessions where there may or may not have been some foul worthy contact, the half ended with the Hornets down two.
LaMelo kept his foot on the gas pedal to start the second half, doing all of his damage inside the arc. Kel’el Ware blocked a couple of Hornets shots to swing the momentum in the Heat’s favor. But Brandon Miller answered with two 3-pointers to announce his arrival after an invisible first half. The Hornets briefly trailed by as many as five at a couple of points, but Coby White quickly flipped the game around and scored eight points in a 10-0 run to put the Hornets ahead five. He added a layup and a heavily contested buzzer beating three (foreshadowing?) to put the Hornets up six going into the fourth quarter.
The good vibes gave way to the fourth quarter woes that have become a bugaboo in recent weeks. The Hornets missed a barrage of 3-pointers and let the Heat rapidly come from behind to overtake them. Most of the attempts came after a Heat fly by and a reset dribble for a three instead of attacking the open space. Miles Bridges snapped the Hornets out of the funk and led a 7-0 run to tie the game, but a pair of threes by Andrew Wiggins and a third from Tyler Herro put the Hornets on the ropes with time winding down. Brandon Miller finally made the Hornets first three of the fourth quarter on the team’s 11th attempt with under three minutes to play. A couple possessions later, Bridges made a three of his own to get the Hornets back within three after Miller inexplicably passed up a fast break layup. A late stop gave the Hornets a chance to tie the game, but they took way too long to even initiate the offense and settled for a heavily contested Grant Williams three in the corner. Jaime Jaquez got the rebound and was fouled. He made a free throw to make it a two possession game, but he only made one. Miller hit a quick three to make it a one point game with under 20 seconds to play. After a pair of Herro free throws, Sion James inbounded the ball to Coby White in the corner, who hit a fall away three with a defender all over him to tie the game. Herro’s buzzer beating attempt to win the game drew back iron.
Brandon Miller made an early three in overtime to put the Hornets ahead and then finished an alley oop from LaMelo. Miles Bridges followed that with a swooping reverse layup to put the Hornets up five with 93 seconds to go. LaMelo answered a Davion Mitchell layup with his trademark dead leg layup to put the Hornets back up five. Allegedly. The play happened while we all watched a technical difficulties banner across the screen. Then, Herro made a three much like the one White made to force overtime. Charles Lee elected not to call timeout, and LaMelo ended up stranded trying to bring the ball up against pressure alone. He tried to pass to Sion James, but the ball was stolen. Herro took the ball to the corner, where he shot another three. He was given a foul call even though it looked like LaMelo made very little contact on the contest. He made all three free throws and put the Heat up one.
The Hornets took possession with 8 seconds left. They got LaMelo the ball, and he drove past Jaquez to lay it in with five seconds left. The Heat didn’t have a timeout, so they were forced to try and push the ball up the floor against a scrambled Hornets defense. Davion Mitchell drove in for a layup, but Miles Bridges jumped approximately eight feet in the air to pin the ball on the backboard and seal the win.
The Good
We get more Hornets basketball. And it’s because of some incredibly clutch shot making. Hopefully that’s a sign that the Hornets have broken through the late game yips that had become a problem in recent weeks. It’s hard to go into the next game with better vibes than there are right now.
I know there are lots of mixed feelings about him, from myself included, but I couldn’t help but be happy for Miles Bridges. He’s endured a lot of losing in Charlotte, and you can tell how badly he wants this team to win. He’s the veteran of the group, and he played like it. He was one of the team’s anchors when there were some early game nerves, and then he delivered some of the biggest plays in the biggest moments late in the game. He finished with 28 points, nine rebounds, and three blocks. The last of those three blocks won the game, which was fitting for a player that’s experienced some massive flameouts in these situations in the past.
The other Hornets who had been there and done that as a Hornet was LaMelo Ball, and he teamed up with Bridges to carry the team in the first half of the game. He’s been gradually shaking the perception he has as an unserious player throughout this extended stretch of winning. He should’ve fully shed that label after this win. He played with a ton of intensity on both sides of the ball, and while his 3-point shot was brutal, he carried the Hornets offense for extended stretches of the game. 30 points, 10 assists, and only three turnovers is quite the night on the national stage.
Coby White had been knocked out of the play-in by the Heat three years in a row. It was a masterstroke by Jeff Peterson to acquire him for this very moment. He was not going to lose this game. His second half and more specifically the impossible three he made at the end of regulation saved the Hornets season and exorcised both his and the Hornets demons in the Heat.
Moussa Diabate had a quintessential Moussa game. He only scored eight points, but he finished with eight offensive rebounds and 14 rebounds total. He also drew another handful of fouls fighting for rebounds, and he locked down the Heat’s perimeter players when they tried to attack him in switch situations. He made life miserable for the Heat with his energy and aggressiveness that we’ve become accustomed to.
The Hornets shot the ball poorly from three, which has been a death knell in other games. They needed to rely on plan B, which is winning the volume game. They did that. 17 offensive rebounds and only six turnovers meant the Hornets attempted 10 more shots and had about seven extra possessions compared to the Heat. That’s enough to make a really big difference, and the Hornets needed every one of those extra possessions.
The Bad
It was a nightmare postseason debut for Kon Knueppel. He missed all six of his 3-pointers and scored just six points with 12 shot attempts. The Hornets were outscored by 20 points with him on the floor. He looked nervous and a little sped up. He was very quick to give up the ball on a lot of occasions without even looking to put pressure on the defense. He’ll get a chance to bounce back, and I’m sure he will.
While LaMelo was a star on the whole, the Hornets are going to be playing with a heavy weight on their shoulders if he and Knueppel are going to shoot 2-of-22 from three like they did in this game. Fortunately their teammates picked up the shooting slack, but that isn’t going to happen all the time.
There will probably be some chatter about the LaMelo Ball and Bam Adebayo incident. If the roles were reversed, I’d be very upset. But in my best attempt to be neutral, I don’t think it was as bad as it looked. LaMelo probably should’ve gotten a whistle for the contact that knocked him over to begin with. When he fell, his arm landed underneath Adebayo, and he was pulling it back into his body as Adebayo was already falling. He may have instinctively grabbed a bit as Adebayo’s ankle and his hand made contact, but the whole thing happened so quickly that it’s hard to believe it was premeditated or intentional. Adebayo was falling before any contact was made. LaMelo hitting his ankle just made Bam fall a little harder. It’s very unfortunate for the Heat, and it stinks that it adds a little bit of controversy, but I don’t think it should take away from how great of a game this was.
I don’t know if it was a problem with the audio alignment or if Ian Eagle has the eagle vision his name would suggest, but he was reacting to shots going in a split second before we actually saw them go in. It was a little jarring at times, and I think it was a matter of Prime’s announcer audio feed being a little ahead of the video feed. Pair that with the technical difficulties that prevented us from seeing the second to last possession of the game, and it wasn’t the best postseason debut for the NBA on Prime.
What’s Next
Thanks to a scheduling conflict in Philadelphia, the Hornets get an extra day of rest after the win. They’ll play the loser of tonight’s Magic vs 76ers game on Friday. If the Hornets win that game, they’ll be in the playoffs in earnest.
