Heat Take 2-0 Series Lead Over Charlotte Bobcats With Hard Fought Win

The Heat now have a 2-0 lead in their opening round playoff series against the Charlotte Bobcats

The Miami Heat took a 2-0 lead over the Charlotte Bobcats in their best of seven series on Wednesday with a 101-97 win.

Once again, Miami had difficulty with Charlotte as they cut the deficit significantly after the Heat had extended big leads multiple times. The Bobcats were within three points with less than two minutes to go due in part to six turnovers from Miami in the fourth quarter alone. LeBron James had his shot working shooting 11-17 for 32 points to go along with eight assists and six rebounds. Chris Bosh had his long range game on Wednesday going 4-5 from three-point land including making his first four attempts of the game in a 20 point night. Dwyane Wade was having a tough night until the fourth quarter when he scored eight points to give him a total of 11 in the game on 3-8 of shooting.

Unlike game one where Charlotte opened up a lead early, the Heat led early in this one and were up ten to end the first quarter after a thunderous dunk from Chris Andersen. That was the sixth point of the game for the center who had a terrific first quarter. Mario Chalmers who had been questionable for the game started and scored the first nine points of the game for Miami including a pair of three-pointers. The only reason Chalmers stopped scoring is that he was replaced about a minute after the second three went into the basket.
 
In the second quarter, it was more of the same with Miami finishing the half up ten. The lead had increased to sixteen before Charlotte sank two late threes to close out the quarter. The second of those treys was courtesy of Kemba Walker who beat the buzzer in a similar fashion in game one. It was a great half for James who had 16 points at the break on 7-9 shooting but the story wasn’t as good for Wade. The Heat star had seven points and was 2-5 on his field goal attempts in the half. Bosh took two three-pointers in the first half and made both.
 
The Bobcats opened the second half with a six point run to cut Miami’s lead to four in a hurry. James ended the run when he made a layup and added an and-one. Bosh then hit two three-pointers in a span of 31 seconds bringing back memories of his multiple threes earlier in the year against Charlotte. The Bobcats would not let up though and promptly made it a four point game again shortly after. The Heat were able to turn the tables a bit and increased their lead back to seven when the third quarter came to a close.
 
The fourth quarter opened in a similar manner to the third as Charlotte once again trimmed Miami's lead to four in the early minutes. Thanks to a James bank shot followed by a three-pointer by Norris Cole in a span of 30 seconds, the Heat improved the lead back to nine with nine minutes to play. That lead continued to expand all the way up to 14 with about seven minutes to go. However, the Bobcats would simply not go away as they made it a four point game again with four and a half minutes remaining. That's when Bosh took over again picking up four quick points to bring the lead back to eight. The Bobcats went on another furious run though to make it a three point game with 1:42 left. Miami was able to do enough to hold off Charlotte though and close out the win.
 
The Heat and Bobcats will continue the series on Saturday as Miami looks to take a commanding 3-0 lead in Charlotte.
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