Miami’s free fall in the Eastern Conference continued on Saturday evening with a loss to the Charlotte Hornets.
The Heat have now lost four games in a row and have a disappointing 32-29 overall record. With that mark, Miami sits at seventh in the Eastern Conference and is in some danger of falling out of playoff contention. The Heat are only 4.5 games ahead of the last slot for the play-in tournament at this time, and are now 2.5 games behind a traditional guaranteed playoff spot.
Tyler Herro’s 33 points led the Heat, while Jimmy Butler was close behind with 28. The Heat actually won the fourth quarter 31-26, but were unable to ever recover from the first quarter of the game. In the opening quarter, Charlotte opened up a 29-16 lead and was able to maintain an advantage until the final buzzer sounded.
Miami is off on Sunday, but will look to return to the win column on Monday when it visits the Philadelphia 76ers.