Jimmy Butler willed the Heat to the last win, can they hold off Charlotte again to pick up another W?

The Miami Heat get another crack at the Charlotte Hornets tonight in South Beach as they hope to pick up back to back wins. This is the second game in a row these two teams will be playing each other inside the same stadium. The last matchup was an entertaining one, and even went to overtime. Jimmy Butler took over late in the game and willed the Heat to a much needed win.
However, it shouldn’t have been that difficult for Miami. They had multiple double digit leads in that game blown, and made it a much closer game than it needed to be. Heat fans have yet to see Miami dominate an entire game from start to finish on their home court. With no Lamelo Ball or Gordon Haywood, Miami needs to do a better job at keeping the lead and running with it.

The Heat seem to take their foot off the gas at points, like there is an on/off switch for this team. This would be a good game to break that pattern. Consistency is key to being a good basketball team, and Miami needs to work on finding that consistency for a full game. These are nights where players like Jimmy Butler, Kyle Lowry, and Bam Adebayo should be getting rest in the fourth quarter and secure a big lead.

Either way Miami plays this game throughout, the win is all that matters at the end of the day. Miami was able to secure that in the last game, and hopefully this game won’t be any different. It is unclear whether or not Tyler Herro will be available, and if not expect Max Strus to get that starting nod once again.

Also if Dewayne Dedmon, who is back on the injury report, is not able to play, it is going to be interesting who gets the back up big minutes. Maybe Erik Spoelstra decides to give rookie Nikola Jovic some action.

INACTIVE/INJURIES

MIAMI:

• Victor Oladipo: out
• Omer Yurtseven: out
• Dru Smith: two-way assignment
• Tyler Herro: questionable
• Dewayne Dedmon: questionable

GOLDEN STATE:

• LaMelo Ball: out
• Gordon Hayward: out
• Cody Martin: out
• Bryce McGowens, out
• Mark Williams, out
• Dennis Smith Jr., questionable

LINEUPS

Projected Starters

ODDS (via FanDuel)

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Broadcast Info:

Tipoff: 8:00pm EST

TV: Bally Sports Sun (Eric Reid, John Crotty)

Radio: AM 560 Sports WQAM & The HEAT Radio Network (Jason Jackson)

Spanish Radio: WAQI 710 AM & The HEAT Spanish Radio Network (José Pañeda)