Hornets vs. Heat: Game 7 Score and Twitter Reaction from 2016 NBA Playoffs
The Miami Heat's experience and talent showed during Sunday's 106-73 victory over the Charlotte Hornets in Game 7 of the teams' opening-round playoff series at American Airlines Arena.
The Heat's face of the franchise, Dwyane Wade, came through in the clutch in Game 6 on Friday to help position Miami for Sunday's opportunity, but in the decisive showdown of the series, his supporting cast carried him to a large degree.
After averaging only 12.3 points per game on 37.3 percent shooting in the six prior contests this series, Heat point guard Goran Dragic finished with a game-high 25 points and sparked the Heat's 29-18 opening quarter with eight points.
When it appeared as though the Hornets were clawing their way back, Hassan Whiteside made a massive block, leading to a dazzling Dragic spin move that stymied Charlotte's momentum and pushed the Miami advantage to 44-35:
Courtney Lee, who nailed the contest-winning three-pointer late in Game 5 on Wednesday, helped keep the Hornets in striking distance with five straight points thereafter and made all five of his shots for 11 points before the break.
Jonathan Jones of the Charlotte Observer applauded Hornets head coach Steve Clifford's faith in his team:
By the time the first half ended, though, the hosts had stretched their edge to 54-42, and Dragic led all scorers with 17 points.
Complex Sports reacted to Dragic's form:
NBA Players Association writer Jared Zwerling noted how valuable Dragic's performance was:
The Heat floor general's hot start may have thrown Hornets star Kemba Walker off his game. Walker was on his heels on defense and couldn't create offense to his usual standard, shooting 1-of-6 for two points to that juncture of the contest.
Hoops Habit's tweet encapsulated the lopsided point guard matchup through 24 minutes of play:
Ethan J. Skolnick of the Miami Herald weighed in on Dragic's impact:
Little changed to begin the third quarter, as the Heat opened the period with a 20-4 run that included a sequence in which Whiteside blocked Walker and Joe Johnson drained a three to make it 65-44.
Dragic and Co. continued to pour it on, and the score was 83-53 through three quarters.
Kurt Helin of NBCSports.com observed that the home team seemingly had one key advantage:
It appeared as though Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra devised a game plan to force someone other than Walker to beat his squad. No one else rose to the occasion for the visitors, and it cost them a shot at the second round.
Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer had some serious criticism for Walker, who wound up with only nine points and missed 13 of his 16 field-goal attempts:
The Cauldron's Nate Duncan noted that even Al Jefferson, who'd previously had success in the post against Whiteside, couldn't be counted on to produce in Game 7:
Whiteside won that meeting in the paint with 10 points, 12 rebounds and five swats.
His rim-protecting ability was key to the outcome, but so was Whiteside and the Heat's collective knack for crashing the glass. After out-rebounding the Hornets in five of the series' first six games, Miami enjoyed a 58-36 advantage on the boards in Game 7, which limited Charlotte's margin for error.
At The Hive was resigned to the Hornets' fate before the fourth got underway:
When Dragic fires on all cylinders as he did Sunday, the Heat rise to another level. The Hornets didn't have any answers for his breakout performance, which allowed Wade to check out with 3:31 left in the third quarter, per NBA.com.
Charlotte can take some solace in having pushed this series to the limit despite Nicolas Batum being banged up throughout.
Batum averaged 14.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game during the regular season but just wasn't himself in the playoffs. The circumstances may inspire optimism for what the Hornets can do if they are fully healthy next postseason.
Miami's turnaround will be swift, as its Eastern Conference semifinals opener against the winner of Sunday night's Game 7 between the Toronto Raptors and Indiana Pacers is set for Tuesday.
The third-seeded Heat figure to be favored against either team considering that the second-seeded Raptors have been to the second round only once before and Indiana is the East's seventh seed.
Postgame Reaction
Dragic talked about Miami's Game 6 effort carrying over into its second straight elimination contest—and how the Heat tried to slow Walker—per NBA TV:
"They made us better. I think our basketball team needed to go through this," Spoelstra said, per Skolnick. "We've been through a lot this year. And we're still standing."
Wade made sure Luol Deng was credited for helping Miami weather adversity in the regular season and the playoffs. Deng scored the first four points of the game Sunday and had seven of the Heat's first 10 as they opened a six-point lead just five minutes into the contest. He finished with 15 points, eight rebounds and four assists
"The emergence of Luol Deng was the most important thing to salvage this season," Wade said, per Skolnick.
Said Clifford, per Skolnick: "I thought at halftime with our team we were fine. Then the third quarter got away from us."
Clifford also said Dragic "changed the whole thing today. He was terrific."
Said Batum, per the Hornets' official Twitter account: "Only thing we can do is learn from this. We'll be bigger and stronger next year."
