Charlotte Hornets at Miami Heat
Game time: 7:30 p.m., ET
Where: FTX Arena
TV: Bally Sports Sun
Betting line: Heat -6
VITALS: The Heat and Hornets meet for the first of four matchups this regular season. Last season, Charlotte won the series, 2-1. The Heat are 67-46 all-time versus the Hornets during the regular season, including 39-18 in home games and 28-28 in road games ... Center Bam Adebayo posted a double-double in each of the first three games this season, the fourth-longest streak to begin a season in franchise history.... Guard Kyle Lowry has started in 573 straight games in which he has appeared in ... For the Heat, guard Victor Oladipo (knee) is out.
HEAT
G Jimmy Butler
G Kyle Lowry
C Bam Adebayo
F Duncan Robinson
F P.J. Tucker
HORNETS
G LaMelo Ball
G Kelly Oubre
C Mason Plumlee
F Gordon Hayward
F Miles Bridges
QUOTABLE
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra on the defensive improvement: “You want to build a reliable, stable, disruptive defense that you can count on night in and night out. We have things that we’re trying to accomplish that we’re doing pretty well. That’s something that’s on my radar. And that played out virtually the whole year last year. “Our percentage defense was pretty good, 3-point defense. But we gave up a ton of threes. It makes the head coach extremely uncomfortable when those are launching up there, but a lot of the other things we do are grading out pretty good. So it’s still too early, the sample size is too small. And we’ll just have to see how that plays out.”
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