Heat falls to Hornets to start 0-3 for first time since 2007-08 season. Takeaways and details

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 115-110 loss to the Charlotte Hornets (2-1) on the second night of a back-to-back set Saturday at Spectrum Center. The Heat (0-3) now returns home to face the Dallas Mavericks on Monday at Kaseya Center:

It just keeps getting worse for the new-look Heat, as it is now 0-3 to start a season for the first time in nearly two decades.

The last time the Heat started 0-3 came when it began the 2007-08 season at 0-5. Miami finished the 2007-08 season at 15-67 before taking Michael Beasley with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2008 draft.

Even after dropping its first two games of the season by a total of 42 points at home, Saturday’s loss was especially painful because it came against a short-handed Hornets team that lost to the Atlanta Hawks by 47 points the night before. The Hornets were also without two of their top offensive players on Saturday, missing Kon Knueppel (left hamstring strain) and Coby White (left hamstring strain).

Most of the issues that hurt the Heat in the first two games of the season also hurt the Heat on Saturday, as Miami has now lost the first three games of the Giannis Antetokounmpo era.

The Heat’s three-point shooting around Antetokounmpo was again underwhelming, finishing 13 of 35 (37.1%) from behind the arc. The Hornets outscored the Heat 48-39 from three-point range.

The Heat shot just 5 of 15 (33%) on threes in Saturday’s first half before shooting 8 of 20 (40%) from deep in the second half.

The Heat has now been outscored 165-108 on threes through its first three games of the season.

The Heat’s defense also was again shaky, allowing the Hornets to score 96 points through the first three quarters before limiting Charlotte to 19 points in the fourth quarter.

The two teams played a competitive first half that included nine lead changes and eight ties, but the Hornets managed to enter halftime with a 66-58 lead behind a 30-15 advantage in points from three-point range and a 16-8 edge in second-chance points.

The game then got away from the Heat in the third quarter, as the Hornets pulled ahead by as many as 23 points in the period and entered the fourth quarter with a 21-point lead.

The Heat shot just 7 of 22 (31.8%) from the field and committed five turnovers in the third quarter.

But the Heat lineup of Davion Mitchell, Tim Hardaway Jr., Pelle Larsson, Bobby Portis Jr. and Bam Adebayo sparked a rally, as the Heat opened the fourth quarter on a big 25-4 run to tie the game at 100 with 5:42 to play. Miami made that run with Antetokounmpo on the bench.

However, the Hornets regained control of the contest when Charlotte guard Grayson Allen hit a three-pointer while being fouled by Hardaway to break a 104-104 tie with 3:19 left in the fourth quarter. Allen then hit the free throw to give the Hornets a four-point lead

The Hornets led the rest of the way, closing the game on an 11-6 run after the Heat tied the game at 104.

“That was inspiring, and ultimately what I told our team right now is we need inspiration,” Spoelstra said of the Heat’s late-game comeback that fell short. “Those five guys inspired our team for 10 minutes of the game, and we need a lot more inspiration throughout the course of 48 minutes. It’s a powerful thing when you can inspire your teammate to make an extraordinary effort, and we will. We’ll get there.”

Mitchell was the catalyst behind the Heat’s late surge, scoring 15 of his team-high 22 points in the fourth quarter. He also finished the loss with 10 assists.

Brandon Miller led the Hornets with a game-high 34 points. Dennis Schroder added 25 points and Naz Reid contributed 23 points for Charlotte.

“We just got to keep fighting, keep pushing,” Mitchell said. “It’s a new team, we’re kind of learning each other’s personalities, learning each other’s games still. I mean, this is Game 3. We’re not in panic mode. We’re going to figure it out.”

The Heat needed to play much of the first half without Antetokounmpo because of foul trouble, and the two-time NBA MVP struggled to find a rhythm after that.

Antetokounmpo totaled 10 points on 2-of-3 shooting from the field and 6-of-8 shooting from the foul line, two rebounds, one assist and one steal while playing only 11 minutes in Saturday’s first half. After picking up his third foul with 9:08 left in the second quarter, Antetokounmpo spent the rest of the first half on the Heat bench.

The Heat was outscored by five points while Antetokounmpo was on the bench in the first two quarters.

But even when Antetokounmpo was on the court in the second half, the Heat struggled.

With the Hornets’ defense daring the Heat to make threes, the paint was clogged for Antetokounmpo. He scored just four points on 2-of-8 shooting from the field and committed two turnovers in the third quarter, as the Heat was outscored by 11 points in the 10 minutes that Antetokounmpo played in the period.

Antetokounmpo then watched the Heat’s fourth-quarter run from the bench before re-entering the game with the score tied at 102 and five minutes to play.

But Antetokounmpo didn’t score in his limited fourth-quarter minutes before fouling out with 1:57 left in the fourth quarter.

“He’s a physical force with the ball in his hands, and whether defenders are protecting themselves from that force or not, that’s a foul,” said Spoelstra, who was frustrated by the way Antetokounmpo was officiated on Saturday. “You can’t protect yourself and deliver blows when he’s under the basket and trying to gather himself. The traveling call, I think there were three fouls before that.

“I’m not making this game about the officials, so everybody else can just kick rocks about that. I’m just talking about the physicality that he endures every game, and then he’s the one that fouled out. He doesn’t foul out very much, but that’s the tough part of officiating a player like him. That’s like Shaq.”

After scoring 35 points in the season opener and 36 points in the second game of the season, Antetokounmpo finished Saturday’s loss in Charlotte with 14 points on 4-of-11 shooting from the field, 0-of-1 shooting on threes and 6-of-8 shooting from the foul line, six rebounds and three assists in 24 minutes.

Despite the group’s early-season struggles, Spoelstra stuck with the same starting lineup for the third straight game to begin the season. The results were again negative.

The Heat again went with the starting lineup of Mitchell, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Antetokounmpo and Adebayo on Saturday.

After this five-man combination was outscored by a total of 25 points in 22 minutes together over the Heat’s first two games of the season, the Heat’s starters were outscored by five points in eight minutes together on Friday.

Instead, the Heat relied on a lineup of Mitchell, Larsson, Hardaway, Portis and Adebayo to get back in the game in the fourth quarter.

Thompson scored 14 points and shot 4 of 9 on threes.

Wiggins’ quiet start to the season continued, finishing Saturday’s loss with four points on 2-of-5 shooting from the field and 0-of-1 shooting on threes, one rebound and one assist in 18 minutes. He was subbed out with 7:17 left in the fourth quarter and spent the rest of the game on the bench.

Wiggins is averaging just 7.7 points per game on 35.7% shooting from the field and 2-of-11 (18.2%) shooting from three-point range through the first three games of the season.

After scoring just four points on six field-goal attempts in Friday’s loss to the Detroit Pistons, Adebayo was much more aggressive in looking for his own offense on Saturday.

Just in the fist six minutes of Saturday’s contest, Adebayo put up four shots.

By the end of the first quarter, Adebayo already had four points on six field-goal attempts. It’s the most shots that Adebayo has taken in a quarter through the first three games of the season.

Adebayo finished the first half with 11 points on 4-of-11 shooting from the field, 1-of-2 shooting on threes and 2-of-2 shooting from the foul line. It’s the most points and shots that Adebayo has recorded in any half at this early stage of the season.

Adebayo went on to finish the loss with a season-high 20 points on 7-of-17 shooting from the field, 2-of-6 shooting on threes and 4-of-4 shooting from the foul line, eight rebounds and four assists in 38 minutes.

But Adebayo is still averaging just 13 points per game on 42.9% shooting from the field and 3-of-13 (23.1%) shooting on threes through the first three games of the season.

The Heat also stuck with essentially the same bench rotation (but with a twist) despite its rough start to the season.

The Heat used Larsson, Portis, Hardaway and Nikola Jovic as its four primary reserves for the third straight game to start the season.

But with the Heat in search of offense and outside shooting, Heat rookie guard Ryan Conwell was called on to play the first meaningful minutes of his NBA career.

Conwell entered for his only action of the night with 3:56 left in Saturday’s third quarter. He hit a three-pointer to finish with three points in his three minutes of playing time.

Jovic was again out of the Heat’s rotation in the second half for the second straight game. He did not play in the second half on Saturday after logging six minutes in the first half.

Jovic finished scoreless and missed his lone field-goal attempt in his six minutes of playing time in the first half.

Larsson led the Heat’s reserves with 15 points to go with seven rebounds, four assists and one steal in 36 minutes.

Portis added 13 points and eight rebounds in 26 minutes off the bench.

But Hardaway’s shooting struggles continued, finishing Saturday’s defeat with five points on 1-of-6 shooting from the field and 0-of-5 shooting on threes in 21 minutes off the bench. He’s now shooting just 3 of 17 (17.6%) on threes through the first three games of the season after shooting an efficient 40.7% on threes last season with the Denver Nuggets.

This story was originally published October 24, 2026 at 8:52 PM.