The Charlotte Hornets overcame horrific shooting from star guards LaMelo Ball and Kon Knueppel to survive a 127-126 overtime thriller against the Miami Heat in the Play-In Tournament on Tuesday, ending Miami’s season.
Ball, the Hornets’ star, gave the Hornets the lead for good with a go-ahead layup in the closing seconds of overtime. Then, Charlotte survived when Davion Mitchell’s layup reply was blocked.
Ball and Knueppel combined to shoot 2 of 21 on 3-pointers in regulation, and the Hornets made just 17 of 52 from that distance through four quarters.
But the Hornets, the No. 1 team in 3-pointers made during the regular season, got a tying 3 from trade-deadline acquisition Coby White with 10.8 seconds left in regulation, and Miami’s Tyler Herro missed a potential game-winner, sending the game to overtime.
Ball then redeemed himself with the game-winning layup on a drive with 4.7 seconds remaining.
“We stuck with it,” Ball told Amazon Prime’s Cassidy Hubbarth during an on-court postgame interview. “We grinded it out. We weren’t hitting a lot of 3s. A lot of shots we weren’t hitting, but, like I said, we stuck with it.”
White, acquired from the Chicago Bulls in February, scored 17 of his 19 points off the bench in the second half, including 14 third-quarter points.
“Coby White’s great for us,” Ball said. “He can make big plays. A great teammate. A great dude. We love having him here.”
Ball finished with a game-high 30 points despite going 2 for 16 from 3-point range. He added five rebounds and 10 assists. Miles Bridges scored 28 points with nine rebounds, Brandon Miller had 23 points with five assists, and Moussa Diabate scored eight points with a team-high 14 rebounds, including eight on the offensive end for the Hornets.
Miami was forced to play the final 40 minutes without injured star big man Bam Adebayo, who exited early in the second quarter with a lower back injury and did not return.
Mitchell led the Heat with 28 points, four rebounds and six assists in 48 minutes. Andrew Wiggins added 27 points, and Kel’el Ware had 12 points, 19 rebounds and five blocks for the Heat.
The Hornets advanced to play the loser of Wednesday’s Play-In game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Orlando Magic.
Here are our takeaways on the first night of Play-In action.
The Hornets’ franchise player has his moment
With the Hornets down by one with 8.7 seconds remaining in overtime, head coach Charles Lee went to his team’s franchise player.
It didn’t matter that LaMelo Ball had made just 12 of his 30 shots to that point and never really found a rhythm in his first playoff game since losing in a Play-In game in 2022. Ball is the Hornets’ best creator, the man they’ve counted on all season to create offense, and they needed a bucket.
So Lee drew up a play that spread the floor for Ball and gave him a chance to isolate against a defender in the middle of the floor. Even with Jaime Jaquez Jr. hanging all over him, Ball turned the corner and laid a finger roll off the glass to give the Hornets a one-point lead and a win to advance to Friday for a chance to take the No. 8 seed in the East.
Ball did not shoot well Tuesday. He did not perform well in his last Play-In game in 2022, where he made just seven of his 25 shots in a blowout loss to the Atlanta Hawks. And he did not perform well in his first Play-In game in 2021, where he shot just 4 for 14 from the field.
In the end, Ball still managed to become the second player in franchise history to put up at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a postseason setting. But if the Hornets are going to advance to the NBA playoffs, they will need Ball to perform better Friday. — Eric Nehm, NBA writer
Heat didn’t have enough tonight — and all season
The Miami Heat didn’t quit when a potentially dangerous play by Ball sent Adebayo to the locker room a minute into the second quarter and forced the Heat pillar to miss the remainder of the game. As they always have under head coach Erik Spoelstra, they kept fighting until the end.
But they didn’t just have enough Tuesday night. And unfortunately for them, that sentiment wasn’t true only of the final game of the season; it was true for the entire season.
The Heat now must figure out what comes next as they attempt to chart a path forward after a frustrating season. The stress of this season wore on Adebayo more than anyone else on the roster, and the on-court standard bearer of “Heat Culture” was unafraid of sharing his frustration throughout this season.
Sadly for the Heat, the play by Ball and subsequent lower-back injury kept Adebayo from being on the floor until the end to try to earn his team another game and one last chance to make the playoffs.
Tyler Herro stepped up in Adebayo’s absence and hit big shots and free throws late in the game to keep the Heat alive. Davion Mitchell led Miami in scoring with 28 points on the night. But as was so often the case this season and the last few seasons, it just wasn’t enough. — Nehm
Live by the 3, (nearly) die by the 3
Only one team in the NBA took a greater percentage of their shots behind the 3-point line than the Hornets, who attempted 45.2 percent of their shots from deep this season. Over a large sample size, the Hornets made that work. They shot well enough and hit the offensive glass hard enough to tilt the math in their favor and turn their season around after a 4-14 start. Those tactics, however, were always going to put them at risk in a single-elimination game.
And they nearly ended up biting the Hornets on Tuesday night. They made just 18 of their 56 3-point attempts, or 32.1 percent, well below their season-long 3-point average of 37.8 percent.
The Heat went to a zone defense in the fourth quarter and Charlotte couldn’t manage to shoot them out of it, knocking down just 4 of 17 from behind the line in the final 12 minutes of regulation. They recovered in overtime but were very close to never even getting that chance.
In the regular season, rookie revelation Kon Knueppel led the league in made 3-pointers with 273, while Ball finished second in the category with 272. On Tuesday night, Knueppel went just 2 for 12 from the field, including 0 for 6 from 3. Ball managed to make an impact, but he made only two of his 16 attempts from behind the 3-point line.
When the Hornets needed a 3 late in the game, Hornets coach Charles Lee chose against putting Knueppel in the game. Coby White bailed them out with a massive 3 to tie the score and force overtime.
But while the Hornets squeaked out a win, it will be interesting to see how Knueppel bounces back Friday night after a brutal performance and getting benched in his first NBA postseason game. — Nehm