Heat lose Adebayo, late leads, fall 127-126 in OT to Hornets in play-in as season comes to end

CHARLOTTE — The play-in magic is gone. And so are the Miami Heat.

After navigating the treacherous play-in round the past three years to make it to the playoffs, and even the NBA Finals in 2023, the Heat’s run of six consecutive seasons in the playoffs is over.

Next stop? The May 10 NBA draft lottery, where the Heat will face even longer odds than they had to make the playoffs.

In the end, it was a crushing finish to what often had been a painful season, losing a late six-point lead in regulation and then giving up the winning basket to LaMelo Ball with 4.6 seconds to play in overtime in a 127-126 loss to the Charlotte Hornets at Spectrum Center.

It was a night that delivered one final, crushing blow, with center and emotional leader Bam Adebayo lost for the night early in the second period with a back injury, after a hard fall.

Ultimately, fighting the good fight was not enough, with the Heat failing to make the playoffs for the first time in seven seasons.

In a gritty, testy, physical game offering shades of the Heat’s Pat Riley era, the Heat got 27 points from Andrew Wiggins, 28 from Davion Mitchell, 23 from Tyler Herro and a 12-point, 19-rebound double-double from center Kel’el Ware.

With a win, the Heat would have advanced to a Friday winner-take-all game against the loser of Wednesday night’s Nos. 7-8 play-in game between the Orlando Magic and Philadelphia 76ers.

Instead, off to the great unknown of an offseason that seemingly will beg for change after a second consecutive 10th-place finish in the Eastern Conference.

Five Degrees of Heat from Tuesday night’s play-in game:

1. Game flow: The Hornets went up eight early and led 26-24 after the first period.

Then, playing on without Adebayo for all but 1:02 of the second period, the Heat moved to a 54-52 halftime lead, with the Hornets’ Brandon Miller along the way forced to the bench with his third foul.

From there, the Heat moved to a five-point lead midway through the third quarter, their largest to that stage, only to see a 10-0 Hornets surge turn it into a five-point lead of their own. The third ended with the Hornets’ Coby White beating the buzzer for an 89-83 Charlotte lead entering the fourth.

But back came the Heat, pushing their lead to seven midway through the fourth quarter behind the scoring of Mitchell.

Ultimately, it was tied 102-102 with 4:27 to play in the fourth on a dunk by the Hornets’ Miles Bridges, only to see Wiggins respond for the Heat with a 3-pointer. Another Wiggins 3-pointer then had the Heat up 108-102 with 3:30 left in regulation.

Not done, the Hornets made it 111-108 with 1:17 to play in regulation on a Brandon Miller 3-pointer and later moved within 112-111 with 18.6 seconds to play on another Miller 3-pointer.

From there, Herro went to the line with 12.9 seconds to play in regulation, making both free throws for a 114-111 Heat lead, only to see White tie it on a 3-pointer with 10.8 seconds to play in regulation.

Herro was off on a 3-point attempt to end regulation.

2. Overtime: A Bridges 3-pointer put the Hornets up three early in overtime, with Charlotte later moving to another three-point lead with 2:17 to play on a Miller inside basket.

Off a Herro miss, the Hornets got a driving reverse layup from Miles Bridges for a 123-118 lead with 1:33 to play.

The Heat trimmed the deficit to 123-120 to play on a driving basket by Mitchell, only to see LaMelo Ball score on the other end to make it 125-120 with 26 seconds to play.

But back came Herro with a 3-pointer with 23.5 seconds to play to make it a two-point game.

A steal by the Heat’s Pelle Larsson followed, as did a three-shot Hornets foul against Herro, who made all three free throws for a 126-125 Heat lead with 8.7 seconds to play.

From there, the Hornets called their final timeout, withLaMelo driving from the winning basket.

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3. The big lineup: The big lineup with Ware starting the final two regular-season games proved to be more than a tease, with Spoelstra again going with the alignment of Ware, Adebayo, Wiggins, Mitchell and Tyler Herro.

The only previous game those five started, was Sunday night’s season finale against the Atlanta Hawks, as the Heat’s 27th and final lineup of the regular season.

Then, with Adebayo out, Jaime Jaquez Jr. opened the third period with the other starters.

4. Hard fall: Adebayo took his hard fall when tripped by the hand of Ball while saving the ball from going out of bounds beneath the Heat basket with the Heat down 28-26.

Ball then scored 5-on-4 in transition, before the Heat called time with 10:58 left in the second period.

The entire Heat bench went out to check on their center, who then was helped off the court and into the locker room alongside Heat physician Harlan Selesnick.

Adebayo at that stage was 3 of 3 from the field with three rebounds in his 11 minutes.

The Heat minutes later termed it a lower-back injury, with Adebayo questionable to return,

5. So more Ware: To his credit, Ware played big as needed, securing his double-double with his 10th rebound with 7:03 to play in the third period.

That rebound came three seconds after Ware caught a Miller attempt for a blocked shot, and seconds before another Ware blocked shot.

If the Heat wanted a postseason showcase for the second-year big man, they at least got that.

In addition, Ware continued to display a feathery 3-point stroke, with a pair in the first half.