HHH GameTime Preview: Heat Visit Hornets

The Heat will tip off against the Charlotte Hornets at the Time Warner Cable Arena tonight at 7PM in Charlotte, NC. It's the second of four games this season between the pseudo-expansion cousins. The Heat took the first game against them in the season opener on October 28th by a 104-94 margin in Miami. They'll play in Charlotte again on February 5th and close the season series in Miami on St. Patrick's Day (hoping for some sort of green uniform theme, cross your fingers).

For Miami, this is the first of a short two-game road jaunt which will see them in Indiana to face the Pacers on Friday night. They are coming off a four game homestand where they racked up a 2-2 record.

The Hornets are closing out a two-game homestand. They defeated the Detroit Pistons, 104-84 on Monday night. After tonight's contest, they'll travel to Memphis for a Friday night showdown against the Grizzlies.

As stated above, these two teams last met on October 28th for both teams' season openers. Chris Bosh led Miami with 21 points and 10 rebounds, while Dwyane Wade supplemented him with 20 and five dimes. Gerald Green came off the bench for his Heat debut for 19 points on five-of-eight shooting from outside. The Hornets were led by Kemba Walker's 19 points. Al Jefferson and Jeremy Lin each scored 17, and Marvin Williams notched a double-double with 10 points and 10 boards.

NBA.COM's recap

Guys made shots, but it's a testament to the ball movement and guys giving of themselves to make the shot easier for the next guy. And it helps when you've got Gerald Green on your team, too. - Wade

BK-Ref Box Score

For more on the Hornets, go to At The Hive.

Miami's last game was a 114-103 loss at home to the Washington Wizards. John Wall led the Wiz with 26 points. Gary Neal and Bradley Beal scored 21 apiece, and Otto Porter had 13 points and 14 rebounds in the win. The Heat shot 59% overall from the field, led by a 12-for-15 shooting clinic by Dwyane Wade for 26 points. Goran Dragic had 20 points for the Heat, and both players also had nine assists on the night.

NBA.COM recap

This is the NBA right now. Welcome to this league. Everybody has a speed-space lineup. You have to be able to adapt, you have to be able to contain the basketball and keep the ball out of the paint with different lineups. - Heat coach Erik Spoelstra

BKREF box score

You can find out more about the Wizards at Bullets Forever.

The Hornets defeated the Detroit Pistons by 20 in Charlotte on Monday. Cody Zeller had 20 points and six rebounds, Marvin Williams had 14 and a dozen and Nicolas Batum scored 13 with eight helpers and seven boards. The Pistons were paced by 16 points from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and 15 with 13 rebounds from Ersan Ilyasova.

Here's NBA.COM's recap.

...and the Basketball Reference Box Score.

For Detroit news go to Detroit Bad Boys.

GameTime: 7PM

All-Time: This will be the 99th contest between the Hornets and Miami (but not really - as the team that was originally the Hornets is currently the New Orleans Pelicans, as if you didn't know). Miami is currently at 51-47 against the club.

Standings

Miami Heat: 12-7, .632, on pace for 52-30. First in the Southeast Division, second in the Eastern Conference, fourth in the NBA. Last Five: W-L-W-W-L.

Charlotte Hornets: 12-8, .600, on pace for 49-33. Second in the Southeast Division, tied for fourth in the Eastern Conference, tied for seventh in the NBA. Last Five: L-W-L-W-W.

Injury Report

Heat

Luol Deng	2015-11-25	Hamstring	Deng has missed the last six games with an injured hamstring but is likely to return Wednesday against the Hornets.
Amar'e Stoudemire	2015-11-23	Illness	Stoudemire has missed the last seven games due to an illness and is questionable to play against the Hornets on Wednesday.

Hornets

Al Jefferson	2015-11-29	Calf	Jefferson is battling a strained left calf injury and is expected to miss two-to-three weeks of action.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist	2015-10-04	Wrist	Kidd-Gilchrist had surgery due to a dislocated shoulder and will miss the remainder of the season.

Common Thread

Jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none Josh McRoberts played a season and a half with Charlotte, averaging nine points, five and a half rebounds and four assists per game in 104 contests.

Milestones

Games: Dwyane Wade will appear in his 800th game tonight and is first on the franchise all-time leaderboard.

Minutes: Tyler Johnson will go over 1000 minutes with 15 tonight. Chris Bosh is 10th all-time, and will remain so tonight, although with 27 minutes on the floor will go over 12,000 with the club.

Three-Pointers: Luol Deng will tie Rashard Lewis in 37th Heat all-time with three triples, which would give him 97.

Free Throws: Deng will tie Anthony Carter in 41st all-time with three freebies, at 210.

Rebounds: With 10 boards, Hassan Whiteside will tie Clarence Weatherspoon in 40th with 692.

Assists: It's an outside shot, but Goran Dragic can join Miami's Top 50 with 15 assists tonight, which would tie him with the late great Anthony Mason at 248. Udonis Haslem can tie Norris Cole in 17th all-time with six helpers, at 710.

Steals: Chris Bosh is currently tied with Rony Seikaly in 11th all-time with 312.

Blocks: Hassan Whiteside is already 13th on the all-time leaderboard, but will probably not get to 12th tonight. He needs 18 blocks to tie Grant Long in that category at 226. Haslem needs two tie tie Eddie Jones in eighth, with 246.

Points: 21 points for Deng will tie him with Ricky Davis in 48th with 1,162.

Check back here at Hot Hot Hoops for the live GameThread, tonight around 6:30PM.