Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 122-105 win over the Charlotte Hornets (18-53) on Sunday night at Kaseya Center to improve to 1-2 on its five-game homestand and end its 10-game skid. The Heat (30-41) continues its stretch at home on Tuesday, welcoming back Jimmy Butler in a matchup against the Golden State Warriors:
The Heat’s longest losing streak since 2008 is finally over thanks to excellent performances from Andrew Wiggins and Tyler Herro.
The Heat earned its first win since defeating the Washington Wizards on March 3, snapping its long three-week skid. The 10-game losing streak ends tied for the sixth longest skid in Heat history, marking only the eighth time the the Heat has ever lost at least 10 straight games in the franchise’s 37 seasons.
But now the Heat is on a one-game winning streak, using 71 combined points from Wiggins and Herro to blow past the Hornets on Sunday.
After a sluggish start, the Heat actually found itself trailing the Hornets by 12 points with 9:21 left in the second quarter.
But the Heat responded, closing the first half on a 28-6 run to enter halftime ahead 57-47. Charlotte scored just six points over the final 9:21 of the second quarter.
The Heat carried that momentum into the second half, beginning the third quarter on a 26-16 run to extend its lead to 20 points midway through the period. The Heat ended up winning the third quarter 39-28 to enter the fourth quarter ahead by 21.
While the Heat has blown a double-digit lead in an NBA-high 20 losses this season, there was no late-game meltdown this time.
After the Heat pulled ahead by 24 points early in the fourth quarter, the Hornets cut the deficit to 13 with 6:17 to play.
But the Heat closed the the door on the Hornets with a midrange jumper from Bam Adebayo and a three-pointer from Andrew Wiggins to push its lead back up to 18 with 5:28 left.
Wiggins was the catalyst behind the Heat’s victory, finishing with a season-high 42 points on 16-of-21 shooting from the field, 6-of-8 shooting on threes and 4-of-7 shooting from the foul line, three rebounds, five assists, two steals and one block in 35 minutes. It marked the second-highest scoring game of Wiggins’ NBA career, only behind his career-high of 47 points that he scored on Nov. 13, 2016 as a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Wiggins has now scored more than 20 points in seven of his first 13 games with the Heat since he was acquired from the Warriors in the Butler trade.
Herro added 29 points on 11-of-19 shooting from the field and 2-of-5 shooting on threes, six rebounds and three assists while playing 40 minutes on a sore hip.
The Heat made another change to its starting lineup, re-inserting Duncan Robinson into the starting group.
The Heat opened Sunday’s game with a lineup of Herro, Robinson, Wiggins, Kel’el Ware and Adebayo.
This marked this group’s second start of the season, as they also were used to begin the Heat’s March 15 loss to the Grizzlies in Memphis. Since then, the Heat has used three different starting lineups in the last three games before returning to this starting group on Sunday.
Robinson closed Sunday’s win with three points on 1-of-2 shooting from three-point range, two rebounds and two assists in 19 minutes.
Kel’el Ware fell just short of a double-double, but he showed signs of growth.
After recording three double-doubles in the previous four games, Ware finished Sunday’s win with 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field, eight rebounds, five assists and one block in 28 minutes.
Ware has 10 double-doubles this season, which is the fifth most by a Heat rookie in franchise history. The only players ahead of Ware on this list are Udonis Haslem (11 double-doubles in 2003-04), Grant Long (14 double-doubles in 1988-89), Rony Seikaly (18 double-doubles in 1988-89) and Sherman Douglas (18 double-doubles in 1989-90).
Sunday was also a sign of growth for Ware, holding his own against Hornets center Mark Williams after looking overmatched against Williams just two weeks ago.
Williams dominated Ware in the Hornets’ March 10 win over the Heat in Miami, finishing with 24 points, 10 rebounds, two steals and two blocks. Ware closed that game with just two points and five rebounds in 23 minutes.
But Williams ended Sunday’s Hornets loss with 14 points and five rebounds.
Guard Terry Rozier has fallen out of the Heat’s rotation.
The struggling Rozier received his third straight DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision). He has six DNP-CDs this season and all of them have come in the last month.
This is not too surprising, considering Rozier is in the middle of one of the worst seasons of his NBA career. But it is unfortunate for the Heat, as Rozier began the season as a starter and Miami gave up a first-round pick to acquire him from the Hornets midway through last season.
Rozier is averaging 11.2 points per game on 39.6 percent shooting from the field and 30 percent shooting from three-point range in 59 appearances this season. That would be the fewest points he has averaged and the worst field-goal percentage he has recorded in a season since his fourth NBA season in 2018-19, with Rozier’s three-point percentage currently his worst for a season since his rookie year in 2015-16.
Rozier is one of only four players in the NBA who entered Monday shooting worse than 40 percent from the field and worse 31 percent on threes while playing in at least 50 games this season. That list also includes Brooklyn Nets guard Keon Johnson, Philadelphia 76ers guard Ricky Council IV and Orlando Magic guard Jett Howard.
Instead of Rozier, the Heat used Haywood Highsmith, Davion Mitchell, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Alec Burks off the bench on Sunday against the Hornets.
Forward Nikola Jovic remains out for the Heat with a broken right hand, but he’s expected to be re-evaluated soon.
Jovic missed his 16th straight game on Sunday because of his broken right hand.
But with Sunday marking the four-week mark since Jovic suffered a fracture in the second metacarpal of his right hand in the Heat’s Feb. 23 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, he’s expected to be re-evaluated soon. At the time of the injury, the Heat announced that Jovic “will be in a splint and re-evaluated in four weeks.”
“We’re still waiting on an evaluation,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said before Sunday’s game when asked for an update on Jovic’s injury. “But he’s able to do everything. As you can imagine, he’s doing all the conditioning, he’s doing all the weight room work that he can do. So that won’t be an issue. It will just be whenever he’s fully cleared, just to get comfortable with the ball and everything. And he’s doing exercises with that in that regard, as well.”
After opening this season as a Heat starter, Jovic established himself as an important part of the Heat’s bench rotation. He logged double-digit minutes in 31 straight games before going out with his hand injury.
Jovic is averaging career-highs in points (10.7 per game), assists (2.8) and minutes (25.1) this season. When available, Jovic has also brought size to the Heat’s rotation at 6-foot-10 while shooting 37.1 percent on 4.6 three-point attempts per game this season to help space the floor for Miami’s offense.
The Heat is 4-12 with Jovic sidelined over the last month.
The Heat also remained without Josh Christopher (G League), Keshad Johnson (G League), Dru Smith (left Achilles surgery) and Isaiah Stevens (G League) against the Hornets.
The Hornets were without Damion Baugh (G League), Josh Green (disc herniation), Tre Mann (disc herniation), Brandon Miller (right wrist ligament repair), Josh Okogie (left hamstring strain) and Grant Williams (right ACL repair) for Sunday’s game in Miami.
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Anthony Chiang covers the Miami Heat for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and was born and raised in Miami.