Inside The Heat

How the depleted Heat trounced the Charlotte Hornets in Miami

Alex Toledo|
Nov 7, 2025; Miami, Florida, USA; Miami Heat guard Norman Powell (24) drives to the basket against Charlotte Hornets guard Kon Knueppel (7) during the third quarter of an NBA Cup game at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
Nov 7, 2025; Miami, Florida, USA; Miami Heat guard Norman Powell (24) drives to the basket against Charlotte Hornets guard Kon Knueppel (7) during the third quarter of an NBA Cup game at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

In this story:

Miami HeatCharlotte Hornets

The Miami Heat triumphed over the Charlotte Hornets with a 126-108 win on Friday night. Here's some of the biggest reasons this came to be.

First quarter offensive outburst: The Heat set a new franchise record with a staggering 53 points in the opening quarter, where they converted on 67 percent of their field goal attempts, sank 10 threes, and finished with a 100th percentile offensive rating, halfcourt offensive rating and effective field goal percentage.

Although that level of offense, predictably, did not last for the entire game, the Heat finished with a 77th percentile overall offensive rating (122.3), 85th percentile in the halfcourt, (108.9).

Norman Powell, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Andrew Wiggins and Pelle Larsson combined for 84 points on 56 percent shooting from the field. All of this was done without Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo, (about 44 combined points per game in 2024-2025), something that would've seemed unfathomable last season.

Assist-to-Turnover battle: The Heat finished this game with 31 assists, a mark that would lead the league this season, (the Heat are actually third in the league in assists per game at 29.7).

Just as impressive, however, is the fact they only turned the ball over eight times on Friday. The lowest turnover team in the league averages 11 per game, for perspective.

Altogether, that comes out to a 3.88 assist-to-turnover ratio, a number which, surprise surprise, would lead the league, by far, (current best in the league is 2.24).

Effective defense: The Heat went up against a Hornets team decimated by injuries to some of their best players (LaMelo Ball, Collin Sexton, Brandon Miller, Josh Green).

That being said, the Heat took care of business defensively, holding the Hornets to a 2nd percentile 72.7 halfcourt offensive rating, a 14th percentile 103.8 overall offensive rating and a 4th percentile effective field goal percentage (43.3 percent).

Additionally, they forced the Hornets into 22 assists and 18 turnovers, (a 1.22 assist-to-turnover ratio), which would all rank as the worst marks in the league this season.

For all the [deserved] talk about their revitalized offense, the Heat now rank fifth in the NBA in defensive rating at 109.8, with the best halfcourt defense in the league. While still ranking first in pace, they now stand at 16th in the league in offensive rating, fifth in the halfcourt.

Rebounding still a concern: After being out-rebounded by 23 against the Denver Nuggets last game, the Heat followed that up by getting out-rebounded by only 20 this time around, (including 13 fewer offensive rebounds).

It just didn't matter as much this time, as the Hornets were attempting to claw back from an early 20-point deficit, and were successful at doing so for a while, cutting the lead down to three by halftime.

The Heat offense cooled down for a bit, scoring just 41 combined points in the second and third quarter, and the Hornets capitalized off those misses, grabbing 34 rebounds combined in the two quarters. They finished the game with 22 second chance points to the Heat's six, which really helped them balance out the possession battle.

Alexander Toledo is a contributor to Miami Heat On SI and producer/co-host of the Five on the Floor podcast, covering the Heat and NBA. He can be reached at toledoalexander22@gmail.com. Twitter: @tropicalblanket

MORE MIAMI HEAT STORIES

Breaking down the Miami Heat's historic first quarter against the Charlotte Hornets

Powell, Wiggins lead historic first quarter, a drop-off and other takeaways from Heat-Hornets

Jaime Jaquez Jr. electrifies with poster dunk, but injury clouds Heat’s win over Hornets

Published
Alex Toledo
ALEX TOLEDO

Alex, who was born in Miami, is also a producer, co-host and reporter for the Five on the Floor podcast. He has covered the Heat and NBA since 2019 as a season credential holder. He studied journalism at Florida International University.

Home/News