CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Perhaps not a case of packing it in, but the Miami Heat for most of Thursday night very much had the look of a team ready for a weeklong vacation.
If you didn’t know better, you might have mistaken the first 40 minutes of their effort for one of those Southwest Airlines commercials.
Clearly, they wanted to get away.
And, then, they decided hope remained.
So on to overtime it was.
And then double overtime.
With Charlotte seemingly the last place they wanted to be — until they decided victory was the best travel companion.
So the Heat go into the All-Star break on a high note with this 111-107 double-overtime victory over the Hornets at the Spectrum Center.
Down 14 in the fourth, the Heat rallied like a team that knew it had a week to recuperate.
It was a balanced, exhausting effort throughout the Heat rotation.
From forward Jimmy Butler, there were 15 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, but also 5-of-24 shooting, missing potential winning jumpers at the end of regulation and the first overtime.
Center Bam Adebayo added a 15-point, 13-rebound double-double, and power forward P.J. Tucker a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double.
And Kyle Lowry converted six 3-pointers on the way to 25 points, and Duncan Robinson six on the way to 21.
Five Degrees of Heat from Thursday’s game:
— 1. Closing time: The Heat went into the fourth quarter down 71-64, with just 27 points in the middle two periods and then fell behind by 14.
Regulation ended tied at 87, with Butler missing a 20-foot jumper just before the fourth-quarter buzzer.
The first overtime ended when a Butler corner attempt was blocked with four-tenths of a second to play, as time expired.
A Robinson 3-pointer and a Lowry running floater then put the Heat up 102-99, with the Hornets’ LaMelo Ball (14 points, 14 assists, 10 rebounds) then fouling out with 2:10 to play.
A Butler jumper followed for a 104-99 lead with 1:06 to play, but a 3-point play by Miles Bridges (team-high 29 points) got Charlotte within 104-103 with 52 seconds to play.
And then, at 0 for 7 on 3-pointers to that stage, Butler converted from beyond the arc for a 107-102 lead with 31 seconds to play.
And it still wasn't over, with Bridges converting a 3-pointer with 25.4 seconds left to get Charlotte within 107-105.
But off the ensuing inbounds play, Robinson found Lowry for a layup and a 109-105 Heat lead. A blocked shot on the other end by Adebayo effectively ended it.
— 2. Robinson’s roll: The Heat’s fourth-quarter comeback was fueled by three Robinson 3-pointers.
One of those fourth-quarter 3-pointers resulted in a four-point play, with the shot producing Robinson’s 700th career 3-pointer.
Robinson became the fastest NBA player to that total, doing it in 216 games. The record had been 269 games by Buddy Hield with the Sacramento Kings.
Robinson was also fastest, in terms of games, to 600, 500, 400, 300 and 200.
— 3. Standings reset: With the victory, the Heat go into the weeklong All-Star break tied for first place with the Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference, but technically ahead because of their 2-0 lead in the season series.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra will be the East’s coaching representative in Sunday’s All-Star Game because his team led the conference at the All-Star coaching cutoff two weeks ago.
Further enhancing the Heat’s outlook is that of their 23 remaining games, only eight are on the road, where the schedule will resume next Friday in New York.
— 4. Scoring struggle: Butler, headed to Sunday’s All-Star Game in Cleveland, filled the rest of the box score, but struggled with his shooting, at 1 of 10 from the field going into the fourth quarter.
Butler uncharacteristically continually settled on the perimeter.
With his seventh point, Butler passed Josh Richardson for 19th on the Heat all-time scoring list.
— 5. Sorry second: The Heat had just six points in the first 8:45 of the second quarter and closed the period with 10.
The Heat shot 3 of 14 in the second, including 0 for 8 on 3-pointers, with their last made field goal of the quarter coming with 4:36 remaining before halftime.
The hideous shooting display allowed Charlotte to play in its preferred transition style, with forward Kelly Oubre scoring 14 in the quarter, to help stake the Hornets to their 54-47 halftime lead.
The Heat trailed by five in the teams’ meeting in Charlotte to weeks ago before rallying for the victory.
