Game Thread: Charlotte Hornets at Miami Heat (Game 1)

Anyone know if there's ever been a four-way tie in season records in the NBA? I'm sure there has been, but it seems like it'd be pretty rare.

https://youtu.be/6R-adJCteBs

6 minute mark of that video. History will repeat itself again boys....

If we shoot like we can and play smart, as long as they don't randomly get super hot we'll win this series in 6.  We're the superior three point shooting team and that's so important in the NBA now.  Whiteside scares me, but even he's still pretty inconsistent.  When he's playing well, the Heat are damn good.  But when he's struggling to make an impact the Heat aren't very good.  We have better shooters and a better bench, as long as Batum is healthy there's no reason not to really like our chances.

Game 1 Sunday 5:30pm start. Glad we avoided an early game.

Miami was trying like hell to avoid CHA. In honor of Grama, your fate awaits you.

After a tremendous season, we finished tied for 3rd and ultimatly got the 6th seed which keeps us away from Clevland. Its time for the postseason. What do we need to do to beat Miami?

 

A death-ball lineup - Kemba, Lee, Batum, Frank, Marvin. 

I truly believe Hornets matchup well and can beat them in 6. They're just a deeper team. Don't know how much Clifford plans on tightening the rotation but I can see them going with a 10 man rotation.

Key to the series is neutralizing Whiteside and my prediction is this series being Kemba's coming out party.

Super stoked we didn't draw Atlanta in the first round. I just didn't feel good about playing them. And thank God Boston won today, keeping us in 6th. If we weren't going to be 3rd, that's the best possible place to be in my opinion. It seems Clifford tonight didn't try to lose, but wasn't trying his hardest to win either. I have a feeling he wanted the 6 seed also.

Didnt want the heat, wanted the Raptors instead.

Still, we match up well against them and should be a cracking series

Remember guys. Last time Kemba was in the playoffs he averaged 20/6/4/2 on 45/50/78 splits

I didn't like how we looked going into Washington but the Wizards obviously finished the season playing some of the best basketball all season that they played. In retrospect I jumped the gun.

In a close EC the seeding does not matter too much for seeds 3-6. It could be very entertaining in those matchups.

I hope we play in the first half like the final two games and not come out flat and get burned early like many other games late this season. Much harder to overcome a slow sluggish start and overcome large deficits.

With that said, heres hoping for an exciting and successful playoff run for us!

Thought we were losing to Atl in 5.  Do the math. 

Any guess as to what time that game 4 on Monday April 25 would start?  Thinking of driving up from Charleston. 

Miami had 5 points in q3.

#Ididthemath

Bleacher Report has us going to the ECF

 

http://bleacherrepor...-the-postseason

Bleacher Report has us going to the ECF

http://bleacherrepor...-the-postseason

I feel we have a pretty good chance to get there! Especially since we avoid Cleveland. Love the respect our team is getting.

I love our chances against the heat so long as bosh stays out. If he's even at 50% he could make things very difficult.

Happy has hell the hornets have made the playoffs. Can't wait to see them on national tv

Remember guys. Last time Kemba was in the playoffs he averaged 20/6/4/2 on 45/50/78 splits

 

 

This stat doesn't get enough credit.  There's Kemba, and then there's Tournament Kemba.  

 

I've been saying since Jeremy Lin's first real big game in Charlotte.   If you can somehow get Tournament Kemba to coincide with Linsanity... I'm not sure who (outside of Warriors) can beat us.  

If Whiteside becomes too disruptive of our interior offense, I wonder if Cliff should consider running with Hawes and Kaminsky together, to force Whiteside out of the paint. 

If Whiteside becomes too disruptive of our interior offense, I wonder if Cliff should consider running with Hawes and Kaminsky together, to force Whiteside out of the paint.

Take it a step further and run out the Frank/Marv frontcourt and make him actually guard someone who can put the ball on the floor from the perimeter. Boston had a lot of success countering Whiteside this year with the Olynyk/Jerebko pairing, forcing him out of his comfort area in the paint and beating him off the dribble.

Tight series and we advance to the second round in my prediction.

Should we start AL or keep him as our scorer off the bench?

Should we start AL or keep him as our scorer off the bench?

 

I cannot think of any strong reason to change the line up that got you here unless something surfaces in this match-up that makes you have to alter the complexion of the roster.  And since the biggest new shiny thing in my mind for our team in this match-up is JJ, I am more thinking that the line up change you might see is to put a bigger cover on him to start if he proves to be the Hawks' JJ, not the Nets' JJ.  In other words, we've faced HW and we need to alter how our guards play with him (I thought it was a mistake to keep going at him here in CLT - they never seemed to adjust to kick out).  I also would prefer we pull HW away from the basket more than leave him covering someone in the low post where he can come off that to deter shots at the rim.