The Miami Heat scored a team record for most points in a quarter, but the Charlotte Hornets still made a game of it in a losing effort.
The summary
The first quarter was surreal. On their first two possessions, the Heat made two heavily contested threes at the end of the shot clock. Those two possessions proved to be a harbinger of what was to come for the remainder of the first quarter. The Heat went on to make 10-of-15 3-point attempts in the first quarter alone as part of a 53 point explosion. The Hornets weren’t perfect by any means, but it was more insane shot making by the Heat than it was bad defense by the Hornets. There was simply nothing the visitors could do to stop the Heat.
Fortunately, the script flipped in the second quarter. Some final embers from the Heat’s first quarter flamethrowing started the second, but they soon flamed out. The Heat went nearly the entire middle half of the period without scoring a single point, and it took another couple minutes to follow the Jaime Jaquez flip hook that finally broke the dry spell. In all, the Hornets went on a 27-2 run to get as close as one point near the end of the half with Kon Knueppel leading the way. They trailed by three at the break.
That was the end of offense for a while. Every basket became a battle and the shots that were going in in the first half were now slipping off the rim. The Heat marginally built on their lead heading into the fourth. The Hornets continued struggling to put the ball in the basket, but the Heat eventually started to figure it out. Unlike in the first quarter, the Heat hardly attempted a three. They instead attacked the basket relentlessly and the trio of Norman Powell, Andrew Wiggins, and Jaime Jaquez made their assortment of baskets in the paint. With how poorly the Hornets were shooting the ball, a ten point Heat lead late felt insurmountable, and the Heat stuck an exclamation point on the end of the win with a little run to end the game.
The good
Kon Knueppel looked like a star. The shooting efficiency wasn’t his best, but the confidence and decisiveness he played with was super encouraging. He was all over the place during the Hornets big second quarter run, especially in the later parts of it. It wasn’t just his 3-point shoot either. He got to the line a couple of times and also completely stuffed a Kel’el ware layup attempt. He ended up with the first 30 point game of the year and has to be entering the conversation as the best rookie in the NBA so far this year now that VJ Edgecombe has started to cool off a little bit.
One more thing about Knueppel–his defensive fundamentals are spectacular. He was guarding Davion Mitchell, and for how quick and shift Mitchell is, he still struggled to create any space. Knueppel’s defense has been so sound positionally that he’s probably already a positive on that end of the floor.
The Hornets could have packed up and gone home after the first quarter. It was demoralizing watch the Heat splash everything they threw at the basket. I can only imagine how bad it felt to be competing against that. But credit to Charles Lee and the players. Nobody quit, and they were able to get back and make a game of it over the last three quarters.
The Bad
Miles Bridges and Tre Mann drew some ire in this space for the way they played late in the loss to the Pelicans on Tuesday. They find themselves here again. The two combined to go 11-of-40 from the field. Both were very aggressive, to their credit, but they’ve got to make their shots with LaMelo and Brandon Miller both out.
It was tough watching the opponent put up a 53 point quarter. The defense hasn’t been perfect by any means, but it feels like the Hornets have been subjected to some inordinately hot opponent shooting the last couple of games.
What’s Next
The Hornets will have the weekend off before hosting the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday.