Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Heat defeat the Hornets in the first Emirates Cup game of the season after a franchise-best 53-point first quarter

The undermanned Heat’s 3-point shooting went cold after a team record 53-point first quarter, and Jaime Jaquez Jr. plus Simone Fontecchio had to bail them out against the Hornets in their first Emirates Cup game of the year. The defensive communication at first was abysmal without Bam Adebayo as they lost track of drive-bys, 3-pointers, and offensive rebounders, yet they found enough combinations in transition.

It was the first game since coach Erik Spoelstra’s home tragically burned. He said, “I had to be the buzzkill after the first quarter, saying they gave up 33 [points]. I’m sure they were rolling their eyes, but we thought it would be easy and then they started to go on a roll… we never established our defensive game to start. We just caught fire in that first quarter.” 

The Heat nailed 10 treys in the opening frame on 66.7% shooting and went up 22 points. Yet the script flipped instantly. It was as if the Heat had broken their own legs defensively after playing fast, and the Hornets then rattled off 18 points in a row deep in the second, causing a Spoelstra conniption. The Heat only went on a 6-5 run to close the half ahead by three.

The Heat subsequently were able to create some separation as they binged in the lane in the last six minutes of the third quarter. Jaquez took over the fourth, breaking down schemes with hard dribbles for four baskets at close range. His most consequential sequence was dropping Sion James and gashing the middle to take a 10-point lead with five minutes left. Spoelstra gave him props after the game because Charlotte was putting their best defenders on him. “He just continues to be an in-control, downhill, relentless guy. Now that he understands where his outlets are, he can be aggressive…”

The Heat won 126-108 and had an edge in two key areas: paint points (70-54) and fastbreak points (20-18). Their biggest weakness was allowing Charlotte to have a 16-point advantage in second-chance scoring. 

Despite only making two 3-pointers after the first quarter and suffering the second quarter drop off, the Heat’s half-court attack still logged 108.9 points per 100 possessions, good enough for the 85th percentile per Cleaning the Glass. 

Pelle Larsson also scored a career-high 20 points on 72.7% shooting, which included an inaccurate four shots in the paint. After the game, he said, “We’re just glad Spo is still able to come spend time with us and that everyone is healthy and no one got hurt. We wanted to get a win for our coach today.”

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