Heat swat Hornets in Game 7, advance to semis

PLAYOFF SCHEDULE | EXPERT BRACKETS

Appropriately enough on Game of Thrones Sunday, the player they call the Dragon was breathing figurative flames, incinerating the Charlotte Hornets to a fine dust in Game 7.

Playing his best game in a Heat uniform, Goran Dragic erupted for 25 points, thoroughly outplaying his counterpart in Kemba Walker to lead the Heat to a 106-73 throttling of the Hornets. The win punched Miami’s ticket to the second round in the East, where they await the winner of the Raptors-Pacers series.

Via ESPN Stats and Info, Miami’s 33-point victory is its most decisive in a Game 7 in franchise history. It is also the fifth-largest margin of victory in a Game 7 by any team in NBA playoff history. It also improved Heat coach Erik Spolestra’s record in elimination games to 9-4, which is the highest winning percentage among active head coaches.

The game turned into a massive blowout, but was quite close in the first half. Miami jumped out to an 11-point lead after one. At one point in the second quarter, the Hornets got within 44-40, and trailed at halftime 54-42. Yet the Heat caught fire in the third, aggressively driving through Charlotte’s defense, stymieing the Hornets with their own defense, to blow the game wide open. In the third, Miami outscored Charlotte 29-11 while shooting 57.1 percent and holding the Hornets to a dismal 20.8 percent shooting and 20.0 percent shooting from beyond the arc. The Heat also dominated on the glass, outrebounding the Hornets 17-7 in the third.

From there, it was smooth sailing for the Heat; the Hornets had too big of a hole to climb out of and simply couldn’t get in a rhythm offensively against Miami’s defense. Charlotte shot 32.1 percent and perhaps more important, connected on 7 of 21 attempts (33.3 percent) from three. Three-point shooting is crucial to Charlotte’s offensive attack and …

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