Hornets Beat Heat 115-110 as Giannis Antetokounmpo Fouls Out and Miami Falls to 0-3

The Miami Heat are still looking for their first win of the season. Brandon Miller scored 34 points, Grayson Allen hit a late four-point play, and the Charlotte Hornets held off a fourth-quarter Miami rally for a 115-110 win Saturday night at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, dropping the Heat to 0-3.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, in his first season with Miami, was held to 14 points and fouled out with 1:57 left. Davion Mitchell led the Heat with 22 points and 10 assists, and Bam Adebayo added 20 points and eight rebounds. The 0-3 start is Miami's worst since the 2007-08 season, when the Heat finished 15-67.

Charlotte pulls away in the third

The Hornets led 66-58 at halftime and took control coming out of the break. Charlotte outscored Miami 30-17 in the third quarter, with five 3-pointers fueling a 24-7 run that broke the game open. The Heat trailed by as many as 23 points.

Charlotte made 16 3-pointers in the game. Miller did his damage despite a rough shooting night from the field, going 10 of 29, by getting to the line: he made 11 of 12 free throws and added seven rebounds and four assists.

Charlotte did it shorthanded. The Hornets were without Kon Knueppel (hamstring), Coby White (calf), Grant Williams (hamstring) and Kylan Boswell (knee surgery), according to the NBA's official injury report. Knueppel, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2025 draft, could return Monday against Washington.

Miller had plenty of help. Dennis Schröder scored 25 points, Naz Reid had 23 and Allen finished with 20 for a Hornets team that was coming off a 128-81 home-opening loss to Atlanta on Friday night, a defeat Yahoo Sports described as one of the worst losses in franchise history.

Miami's comeback falls short

The Heat did not fold. Miami rallied in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 100, then again at 104. That is when Allen hit a contested 3-pointer, drew the foul and made the free throw to put Charlotte ahead 108-104.

Miami kept coming without Antetokounmpo, who picked up his sixth foul with under two minutes to play. Mitchell's 3-pointer with 8.1 seconds left cut the deficit to 113-110, but Charlotte closed it out at the free-throw line.

Mitchell, Adebayo and the Heat reserves drove the comeback after Miami had fallen behind by more than 20 points in the third quarter. Pelle Larsson scored 15 points and Klay Thompson added 14. Adebayo, Mitchell and Larsson each played more than 36 minutes on the second night of a back-to-back for both teams.

Spoelstra questions the whistle on Giannis

Antetokounmpo finished with 14 points, six rebounds and three assists in just under 25 minutes. He was in foul trouble throughout the night, a sharp drop from his first two games in a Heat uniform, in which he scored 71 points combined, including 36 on 15-of-26 shooting against Detroit on Friday.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra made clear afterward that he believes Antetokounmpo is not getting the same treatment as other stars. "I'm just talking about the physicality he endures every game, and then he's the one fouling out?" Spoelstra said, according to Yahoo Sports. He compared Antetokounmpo's situation to that of Shaquille O'Neal, the Heat's 2006 championship center. "That's like Shaq," he said.

Spoelstra insisted he was not blaming the referees for the result. "I'm not making this game about the officials so everybody else can just kick rocks," he said, according to Yahoo Sports.

How the Heat got to 0-3

The Charlotte loss was the closest of Miami's three defeats, all within the season's first four days:

The first two losses at Kaseya Center came by a combined 42 points. Against Detroit, the Pistons opened on a 17-2 run and led wire to wire, and Miami shot 38.2 percent from the field and 15 of 51 from 3-point range. Saturday's game was closer, but the third-quarter collapse came against a shorthanded Charlotte team that had lost at home by 47 points the night before.

Antetokounmpo had already sounded the alarm after the Detroit loss, in which Detroit shot 52.8 percent and Adebayo fouled out with four points in 23 minutes. "We just got to spark it. Somebody has to spark it," Antetokounmpo said Friday, according to Heavy. "I have to be better. I have to set the tone. I have to be more urgent."

Adebayo bounced back in Charlotte with 20 points, and Thompson, who went 2 of 11 against Detroit, gave Miami 14. It still was not enough to overcome a third quarter in which the Hornets made shot after shot from beyond the arc.

The start comes in the first season after Miami's blockbuster July trade for Antetokounmpo, the two-time MVP, which sent four players, three first-round picks, a second-round pick and a pick swap to Milwaukee, according to pregame reports. Spoelstra described his new star as a physical force with the ball in his hands. After the two home losses, Antetokounmpo admitted the slow start had caught the team off guard, saying of the first two games in Miami, "we were definitely shocked."

Charlotte's bounce-back

For Charlotte and coach Charles Lee, the win was a needed response after Friday's blowout against Atlanta. Less than 24 hours after a 47-point home loss, the Hornets improved to 2-1 with four players scoring at least 20 points, and Miller carried the offense on an off shooting night by attacking the basket and living at the free-throw line.

The Hornets play their next game at home against the Washington Wizards on Monday.

What's next for the Heat

Miami returns to South Florida for a home game against the Dallas Mavericks on Monday, Oct. 26, at 7:30 p.m. at Kaseya Center, according to the team's published schedule. It will be the Heat's third home game in six days and their next chance to get Antetokounmpo and Adebayo a first win together in front of South Florida fans.