Written By Satchel Price at SBNation.com
The Charlotte Hornets have taken control of their first-round series against theMiami Heat with a 90-88 victory in Game 5 on Wednesday night. Charlotte has now won three straight games to take a 3-2 series lead with Game 6 set for Friday night.
After three lopsided games to open the series, the past two have seen the Hornets and Heat in close battles. Game 5 went down to the wire and was not lacking in controversy thanks to a few interesting plays near the end of the fourth quarter.
The first came on a Courtney Lee layup attempt in the final minute that seemed to be a missed basket interference call by the referees. Dwyane Wade appeared to smack the backboard and dislodge Lee’s shot, but referees aren’t able to review that kind of call under league rules, so this didn’t undergo any greater scrutiny despite being a very close, important call in a big game.
Lee eventually redeemed himself by hitting the game-winning three-pointer with 25 seconds left, then got into the action again on Miami’s next possession. Wade had a chance to tie the game and possibly force overtime, but Lee blocked the shot and no foul was called. Wade was visibly upset with the officials afterward.
The Hornets went on to close out the game after one last bit of intrigue on an out-of-bounds call in the final seconds. The referees ruled that it was Charlotte’s ball, however, and the team ran out the rest of the clock while the Heat looked less than thrilled by what had just happened.
It was a wild finish to the game, and after going up 2-0, you can see why the Heat are wondering how they got to this point.
Marvin Williams led the Hornets with 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting, which was a welcomed performance for the veteran after some rough shooting nights earlier in the series. Wade had a game-high 25 points on 11-of-19 shooting.
To continue reading this article, click here.
