Miami

Hornets Take Advantage of Sloppy Heat to Tie Series

The Hornets won a second straight game to tie the best-of-seven series on Monday

The Miami Heat turned the ball over often in their 89-85 loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Monday.

The loss by Miami allowed Charlotte to tie the series at 2-2. It was the second straight win for Charlotte and the home team has won every game thus far in the series. With three games remaining, all Miami has to do is win its home games to advance to the second round.

Miami will need to do a better job of holding onto the ball if it wants to advance. The Heat turned the ball over 17 times in the loss.

Charlotte took a nine-point lead into the locker room at the half in what was just the beginning of a strong run. The Hornets would continue their dominant stretch when the second half began. All told, Charlotte went on an extended 36-8 run and was up 18 at one point.

Following the run from Charlotte, the Heat would go on a run of their own. Miami's 17-1 run helped cut the deficit to two and make it a game again late into the third quarter. Miami was able to go on its run even without the services of Goran Dragic who was on the bench due to foul trouble. Charlotte went on a 7-0 run to end the third quarter and led by four.

In the fourth quarter, the game went down to the wire and rebounding became an issue. Charlotte picked up multiple big rebounds in the final seconds for second-chance points. One of the boards came with under five seconds to go and led to two game-clinching foul shots.

The series will head back to Miami for a fifth game on Wednesday with a scheduled start time of 8:00 p.m.

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