Dwyane Wade #3 of the Miami Heat takes the floor during game two of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals of the 2016 NBA Playoffs against the Charlotte Hornets at American Airlines Arena on April 20, 2016 in Miami, Florida. AFP
MIAMI, Florida—Only a week ago the Miami Heat could not score. A five-point quarter in the season finale at Boston was how they sputtered into the postseason, looking nothing like a contender.
It was an aberration.
Dwyane Wade scored 28 points, Hassan Whiteside was 8 for 8 from the field and finished with 17 points, and the Heat beat the Charlotte Hornets 115-103 on Wednesday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference first-round series.
Goran Dragic scored 18 points, Luol Deng finished with 16 and Josh Richardson added 15 for Miami, which had 72 points by halftime and never trailed in the second half. Whiteside added 13 rebounds and is now shooting 17 for 19 in his postseason series debut.
Kemba Walker scored 29 for Charlotte, needing 29 shots to get there. Al Jefferson had 25 on 12-for-17 shooting off the bench, Courtney Lee added 12 and Jeremy Lin had 11 for Charlotte – which has dropped 12 straight postseason contests.
The game was tied midway through the second quarter, and that’s when Miami took off.
The Heat closed a record-setting half with 10 consecutive made shots – eight of them jumpers, four of them 3-pointers – to score a staggering 23 points in 3 1/2 minutes on the way to building a 72-60 lead by intermission.
Miami scored 43 in the quarter and its 72 points in the half matched or exceeded what Game 2 losers managed Tuesday night: Boston had 72 in Atlanta, Memphis managed only 68 in San Antonio.
Miami missed three shots in 12 second-quarter minutes.
Charlotte missed six shots – twice as many – in 12 third-quarter seconds.
Strange but true: The Hornets went 0 for 6 on the opening possession of the second half.
Marvin Williams missed a jumper to start the sequence, and then he and Cody Zeller went on a run of something resembling failed volleyball. Zeller missed a putback. Williams then got three offensive rebounds and missed three consecutive shots, and Zeller somehow missed another tip before the Heat finally corralled the rebound.
It was part of a 0-for-10 night by Williams. Miami shot 58 percent to Charlotte’s 43 percent.