{"id":392515,"date":"2026-04-15T01:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T01:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/392515\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T01:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T01:11:11","slug":"live-updates-heat-hornets-starts-the-postseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/392515\/","title":{"rendered":"Live Updates: Heat-Hornets starts the postseason"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2161213\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2161213\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2270880047.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-2161213\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Norman Powell and the Heat lead at the half over the Hornets in the SoFi Play-In Tournament.<\/p>\n<p>What we know about Tuesday\u2019s games:<\/p>\n<p>Welcome to the postseason!<br \/>\nThe 2026 SoFi Play-In Tournament begins tonight with Heat-Hornets (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/game\/mia-vs-cha-0052500111\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">7:30 ET<\/a>) and Trail Blazers-Suns (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/game\/por-vs-phx-0052500121\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">10 ET<\/a>).<br \/>\nBoth games are on Prime.<\/p>\n<p>APRIL 14 \/ 8:50 ET<\/p>\n<p>Heat up at the half<\/p>\n<p>54-52.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew Wiggins and Davion Mitchell have 10 points apiece to lead the Heat, while LaMelo Ball has 17 points to top the Hornets.<\/p>\n<p>Bam Adebayo went back to the locker room with a lower back injury \u2014 he\u2019s questionable to return.<\/p>\n<p>Miami\u2019s held the Hornets to 38.8% shooting from the field so far, knocking down 46% of their shots themselves.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Herro\u2026 COUNT IT <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/eTS5x6m1QE\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/eTS5x6m1QE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MiamiHEAT\/status\/2044214591937224929?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April 15, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>APRIL 14 \/ 8:23 ET<\/p>\n<p>Dueling in the postseason<\/p>\n<p>37-36 Hornets with 7:43 to go in the second quarter. The teams are close in basically every team statistical category \u2014 the Heat have a slight advantage in points in the paint, 22-16.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Norman Powell gets the circus shot to fall in the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SoFi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@SoFi<\/a> Play-In \ud83d\udc4f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wIkdmGwmCZ\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/wIkdmGwmCZ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBA (@NBA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBA\/status\/2044210081198215526?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April 15, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>These division rivals saw each other four times in the regular season, with the Heat winning three of them. That familiarity is evident so far.<\/p>\n<p>APRIL 14 \/ 7:59 ET<\/p>\n<p>Hornets take the early lead<\/p>\n<p>22-18 with 4:50 to go in the first.<\/p>\n<p>LaMelo Ball (9 pts) is off to a quick start in the biggest game of his NBA career, while the Heat are pushing the pace in transition to battle back.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Bridges SWAT.<br \/>Ball BUCKET.<\/p>\n<p>The Hornets are hungry for their first appearance in the NBA Playoffs presented by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Google?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@Google<\/a> in 10 years! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MyfY4N2B5p\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/MyfY4N2B5p<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBA (@NBA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBA\/status\/2044201273491181631?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April 14, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>APRIL 14 \/ 7:00 ET<\/p>\n<p>The tale of the tape: Heat-Hornets<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2159685\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2159685\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/adebayo1-1568x882.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"882\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-2159685\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bam Adebayo\u2019s Heat take on Moussa Diabat\u00e9\u2019s Hornets in the opening half of our SoFi Play-In Tournament doubleheader on Prime.<\/p>\n<p>Miami Heat: 116.7 ORTG (13th), 114.5 DRTG (13th), +2.2 Net Rating (13th)<\/p>\n<p>The Heat have been an aggressive, idiosyncratic team all season, playing at the league\u2019s fastest pace (103.4) and scoring the second-most points per game (120.9), although their efficiency stats are middle of the pack.<\/p>\n<p>The individual defensive matchups will matter tonight against Charlotte \u2014 can LaMelo Ball and Kon Knueppel slow Tyler Herro and Norman Powell? Does Brandon Miller contain Andrew Wiggins and Jaime Jaquez Jr.? We\u2019ll see if the Heat can create gaps to exploit in transition.<\/p>\n<p>Charlotte Hornets: 119.4 OTRG (5th), 114.4 DRTG (12th), +5.0 Net Rating (8th)<\/p>\n<p>Since Jan. 1, the Hornets have the best net rating (+10.7) and offensive rating (121.9) in the NBA. as they got healthy and found their rhythm as a unit. Grant Williams and Coby White have bolstered the bench, while Moussa Diabat\u00e9 and Ryan Kalkbrenner have been welcome additions as unexpected stalwarts at the center position.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019ll need to keep their nerve and control the tempo against an experienced Miami squad. This team plays slow \u2014 a pace of 96.8, which is 26th in the NBA.<\/p>\n<p>APRIL 14 \/ 6:30 ET<\/p>\n<p>Welcome to the SoFi Play-In Tournament!<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2159084\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2159084\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/avdija-1-1568x882.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"882\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-2159084\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Deni Avdija and the Trail Blazers host the Phoenix Suns in tonight\u2019s SoFi Play-In Tournament nightcap on Prime.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve got two games this evening on Prime as the postseason begins:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/news\/2026-nba-playoffs-play-in-preview-1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NBA.com\u2019s Shaun Powell has breakdowns of each contest for you to check out before the action.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Norman Powell and the Heat lead at the half over the Hornets in the SoFi Play-In Tournament. What&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[186772,186771,85,46,139715,128080,186770,105,141609],"class_list":{"0":"post-392515","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-avdija","9":"tag-heat-hornets","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-lamelo-ball","13":"tag-nba-com-live-blog","14":"tag-sofi-play-in-tournament","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-suns-trail-blazers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}