Heat 97, Hornets 90
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Dwyane Wade scored 23 points and hit two clutch shots in the final minute, and the Miami Heat forced a decisive Game 7 with a 97-90 victory over the Charlotte Hornets in their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series on Friday night.
Wade's 3-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 led by as many as 13 in the first half and 12 in the second, thanks to 60 percent shooting from the field in the first half. They went cold in the third quarter but still finished at 45.8 percent.
Game 7 is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday in Miami.
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 rallied from a 90-81 deficit to get as close as two before Wade took back over.
The Hornets also got 18 points from Al Jefferson and 12 from Cody Zeller.
Miami led most of the game, leading 27-24 after one quarter, 59-50 at halftime, and 75-70 after three quarters.
The 97-point effort came after the Hornets had held the Heat in the 80s the previous three games, all Charlotte wins.
NOTES: The Hornets were without C Spencer Hawes, who suffered a sprained right knee in the Game 5 win at Miami on Wednesday and will miss the rest of the series. ... The Hornets came into Game 6 making 22.6 free throws per game in the series, which is the most of any team in the first round. The Hornets were shooting 82.5 percent from the line in the first five games, which is also an NBA best. ... PG Kemba Walker was leading the free-throw barrage, hitting 26-of-27 in the first five games. ... The Hornets came into Game 6 with a 24-10 record since acquiring G Courtney Lee from Memphis on Feb. 16. ... Heat G Dwyane Wade came into the game with 157 career blocked shots in playoff games, which is one shy of the NBA record for guards held by Hornets owner Michael Jordan. ... The Heat had won at least one road game in each of its last 16 playoff series, which is an NBA record. They lost both previous games in Charlotte in this series. ... The last time the Hornets won a playoff series was in 2002, when they beat Orlando in the first round before falling to New Jersey. The Hornets have never made it past the second round in franchise history.