The Miami Heat are intimately familiar with its Southeast division rival, the Charlotte Hornets.
Charlotte nearly dismantled Miami in the 2016 NBA playoffs, and is usually hot on Miami’s heels for playoff seeding.
Last year, the Heat swept the Hornets, shooting down the team’s chances at another disruptive tiebreak situation as was the case in 2016. That should mean that Miami is well equipped to fumigate the Spectrum Center of any lingering Hornets.
And that logic largely held up on Tuesday night (even though Miami fell 122-113).
In the span of a summer, Charlotte enlisted a new, former San Antonio Spur head coach in James Borrego, plucked the stinger from incongruous center Dwight Howard, and pledged to take the team’s pace up a notch.