Dwanye Wade scored 23 points and hit two clutch shots in the final minute, and the Miami Heat forced a decisive Game Seven with a 97-90 victory over the Charlotte Hornets in their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series on Friday.
Wade’s three-pointer with 46 seconds remaining gave the Heat a 93-88 lead, and then after a Charlotte basket, he hit a fallaway 18-footer with 19.5 seconds left to push the lead back to five.
The Heat also got 21 points from Luol Deng, 14 from Goran Dragic, 12 from Hassan Whiteside and 11 from Joe Johnson, who capped the scoring with two free throws with 5.4 seconds remaining.
Kemba Walker was tremendous in a losing cause, erupting for 37 points. Walker scored 12 straight Charlotte points down the stretch as the Hornets recovered from a 90-81 deficit to get as close as two before Wade took back over.
Game Seven will be played in Miami on Sunday.
© Reuters
