They needed all 82 games of the regular season to get the opportunity to play Game 7 of the opening round at home, and the Miami Heat took full advantage.
A trip to the Eastern Conference semifinals is their reward.
Goran Dragic scored 25 points and grabbed six rebounds his first Game 7, Gerald Green added 16 points off the bench and the Heat eliminated the Charlotte Hornets with an emphatic 106-73 win on Sunday. Miami took the series 4-3, led by as many as 38 and will play either Toronto or Indiana in the East semis starting on Tuesday night.
Luol Deng scored 15, Dwyane Wade finished with 12 and Hassan Whiteside had a 10-point, 12-rebound, five-block clincher for the Heat, who have won their last four Game 7s -- each of the previous three coming along the way to winning NBA championships.
Wade has played in 29 postseason series; the Heat have won 22 of them. And under coach Erik Spoelstra, the Heat are now 15-4 in postseason series, 8-4 when facing elimination games and 15-5 in games when they have a chance to oust an opponent.
Frank Kaminsky scored 12 for Charlotte, which got 11 from Courtney Lee and 10 from Nic Batum. The Hornets' two biggest stars, Kemba Walker and Al Jefferson, never got going -- Walker shot 3 for 16 and scored only nine points, while Jefferson put up a mere four points and two rebounds.
A contentious series, filled at times with anger over calls and non-calls -- not to mention attention on courtside fans and NBA officiating reports -- pushed Miami to the limit. Charlotte had a chance to close out the Heat on its home floor in Game 6, wasting the opportunity.
The Hornets never had a chance in Game 7.
Miami led the whole way, taking a 12-point lead at the half and stretching it to 24 before the midpoint of the third quarter -- the period that has been a problem for the Heat all season but became the catalyst to a rout on Sunday. And with that, it was obvious that Charlotte's season was going to be bookended.
It started with a loss in Miami.
And it ended with a loss in Miami.
Walker, who had 37 points in Game 6 and at times was unguardable in the series, had only two at the half in his first Game 7. Jefferson, Charlotte's best big man, didn't get his first rebound until the third quarter was 2 minutes old. Miami scored 40 of the game's first 54 points in the paint, grabbed 35 of the first 55 rebounds and turned five of Charlotte's first six turnovers into points.
