Charlotte Hornets: One Game Away From Making History

After rallying to win a crucial Game 5 over the Miami Heat, the Charlotte Hornets are on the cusp of accomplishing something they haven’t done in a long time. They just have to cross the finish line first.

It’s funny how quickly things change in just one week.

This time last week, the Charlotte Hornets were down 2-0 in their series against the Miami Heat, were thought to be without their second-best player in Nicolas Batum for the rest of the series and looked overmatched against the offensive firepower of the Heat.

Fast forward a week later, the Hornets now find themselves a game away from winning their first playoff series since 2002 after rallying to win 90-88 in a pivotal Game 5 on Miami’s home court.

Now, some of that has been due to the series becoming more of the grittier series many expected way back before it began and that has clearly benefited the Hornets more than the Heat.

For proof, just take a look at the Heat’s three-point shooting before and after the series went to Charlotte.

The Heat were lights out from downtown in the first two games of the series as they shot 18-of-34 (53 percent) from three-point range. Since then, they’ve fallen off in a bad way as they have gone 23-of-69 (33 percent) from deep in the last three games of the series.

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Sure, a lot of that is the Heat’s shooting regressing to the mean, but the Hornets have improved on their three-point defense as well as letting the Heat’s less-efficient shooters let it fly from beyond the arc and it’s worked for them in the last few games.

With that said, if it weren’t for an out of nowhere offensive rebound and a miraculous three-point shot from Courtney Lee at the end of Game 5, we’d be looking at the Hornets’ season very differently.

Yet, here we are and while it’s easy to get caught up in the controversial calls (or lack thereof in some cases) over the last minutes of Game 5, that shouldn’t take away from what the Hornets have done to turn around this series in their favor.

That applies for individual performances too.

Both of the Hornets’ guards, Kemba Walker and Jeremy Lin, have created problems for the Heat by driving to the basket numerous times a game and it’s resulted in them getting to the line all throughout the series (Lin and Walker are a combined 51-of-59 when shooting from the charity stripe).

Even a player like Marvin Williams, who has been far more inconsistent in this series than he had been all season, has still found ways to make an impact when things haven’t been going his way like he did in Game 5 (Williams had 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting, 3-of-4 from deep, eight rebounds and three steals).

Charlotte Hornets: 1 Game Away From Making History

By Jordan Treske | Apr 28, 2016

After rallying to win a crucial Game 5 over the Miami Heat, the Charlotte Hornets are on the cusp of accomplishing something they haven’t done in a long time. They just have to cross the finish line first.

More from Hoops Habit