The Miami Heat will try to shed some disappointment when they arrive in North Carolina to play the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday night.
The Heat lost 106-103 on Tuesday night at home against the Milwaukee Bucks. The result prevented Miami from notching a three-game winning streak for the first time this season and left the Heat all but eliminated from contention for the NBA Cup.
“It’s disappointing,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We’ve had two ridiculously close games. We wanted to be there in Vegas (for the NBA Cup semifinals), but that’s behind us now, and we’ll focus on getting ready for Charlotte.”
Miami’s Tyler Herro and Terry Rozier had chances to hit game-winning or game-tying shots at the end against Milwaukee.
“I saw open looks. I saw in and out,” Spoelstra said. “Terry’s was like a 27-foot shot so that’s different, but it’s open. That’s all you can (ask for).”
Miami’s point total Tuesday night was its third lowest of the season.
Almost half of Jimmy Butler’s team-high 23 points for the Heat came via his 11 free throws. Miami lost despite Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo sitting out due to a knee injury.
The Hornets, meanwhile, are miffed about losing four of their past five games. LaMelo Ball poured in 50 and 44 points in the past two games, but Charlotte lost them both.
Ball had more than half of the Hornets’ points in a 95-84 home loss to the Orlando Magic on Monday.
“Defensively the guys did a really good job of executing the game plan,” Charlotte coach Charles Lee said. “To give up 95 points and we were fouling toward the end of the game, I think just shows the effort and the competitiveness and togetherness.”
By committing 27 turnovers, the Hornets put themselves in bad situations.
“We got ourselves in trouble with some of our turnovers,” Lee said. “I thought most of it is self-inflicted again. Things that we can control. I would love to just see us to fix some of our transition turnovers that we have right now.”
The Hornets have been out of balance on offense for much of the past few weeks, making adjustments because of injured post players. They are relying even more heavily on Ball and Brandon Miller for scoring. That could pay off in the big picture.
“I see two guys who are very talented, work extremely hard, care very much about the game, their teammates and the process they have to go through every day to continue to get better,” Lee said.
Rozier, a former Hornets guard, will be back in Charlotte with the Heat. He scored 17 points off the bench Tuesday night against Milwaukee.
“He’s a competitor and X-factor player,” Spoelstra said. “He’s in this role for us now.”
Miami is making its second visit of the season to Charlotte, where the Heat won 114-106 on Oct. 26 behind Butler’s 26 points and eight assists. Ball scored 27 points in the game, but Miller didn’t play because of an hip injury. The Hornets committed 20 turnovers.
