Miami staved off elimination and forced a Game 7 back in their joint on Sunday. With their season on the line, wily veteran Dwyane Wade took over, performing his best LeBron James impersonation of past Heat postseason games. Miami will again lean on their ace to snatch a series victory.
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Charlotte Hornets +6.5
Miami Heat -6.5
Over/Under 191
LOOK AHEAD
Down 3-2 in the series with their season on the brink, Dwyane Wade carried the Heat in their Game 6 victory on Friday night, scoring 10 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter. Miami didn’t have to sweat this hard in the first round during Wade’s previous ventures into the postseason alongside LeBron on teams that advanced to the NBA Finals four straight seasons.
With the other stars long gone and the Heat back in the playoffs after slipping into the lottery last season, these are moments Wade savors more than ever this time around. The Heat’s rotation has three players making their playoff debuts, including two rookies, and three journeymen who will be free agents at the end of the season. Wade didn’t lead his teammates as much as guide them on Friday. But his Game 6 heroics won’t mean much if Miami blows the opportunity it just gained.
INJURIES
Hornets forward Nicolas Batum left Friday’s game in the second half with a strained left foot – the same injury that kept him out of two previous games in the series. He only played 15 minutes scoring six points. Also, reserve center Spencer Hawes is out for Game 7 after suffering a knee sprain during Charlotte’s Game 5 victory.
Josh Richardson, who played the most minutes of any Heat bench player on Friday, had has shoulder wrapped after the game but there was no mention of an injury by the team. Center Hassan Whiteside said his thigh injury is still bothering him.
KEY MATCHUP
The Hornets need a lot of Kemba Walker and less of Wade if they are to get another win in Miami and advance to the second round. Walker scored 34 points just days earlier, leading Charlotte to a win in Game 4 that evened the series. Maybe, it seemed, he could dominate on a postseason stage in the NBA, too.
Friday night he may have been even better. Walker scored 14 of the Hornets’ 20 points in the fourth quarter, including a reverse layup to narrow the deficit to two with under two minutes to play. Walker would finish with 37 points, the second-most in Charlotte postseason history. Walker made 14 field goals, including four three-pointers, but it was a miss on a pull-up jumper with about a minute to play, that he lamented the most. Heroes are made in Game 7’s and this is a stage that Walker has waited to be on since the Hornets drafted him in 2012.
QUICK PICK
The Hornets missed a golden opportunity to advance to the second round, dropping Game 6 at The Hive after taking the homecourt advantage with a win in Miami on Wednesday. Things looked gloomy for the Heat after falling behind in the series 3-2 with three consecutive losses, including the Game 5 defeat at the AAC which ended an eight-game home winning streak. But behind Wade, they got the road victory they needed to extend the series.
And that’s good for the Heat, who haven’t lost consecutive games at home since falling to the Clippers and Spurs in early February, before the All-Star break. Miami withstood a monster game from Kemba Walker, Whiteside fouling out, and some dude at courtside in a purple shirt hounding Wade the entire game, to get the victory. Things can’t be that difficult when they play Game 7 on their own floor.
NBA Odds: Miami 98, Charlotte 93
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