The Charlotte Hornets defeated the Miami Heat in their home opener, 97 - 91, at American Airlines Arena on Friday. The contest was truly a tale of two halves, with the Heat unable to sustain a red - hot start coming out of intermission. Miami (1 - 1) carried a 57 - 46 lead into halftime, but Charlotte's bench caught fire in the second half, propelling the Hornets (20) to a 51 - 34 advantage over the final two quarters. Four reserves - - Spencer Hawes, Marco Belinelli, Jeremy Lamb and Cody Zeller - - posted double - digit scoring efforts, helping make up for an unbalanced performance from the first unit that featured only one tally of over 20 points. The Hornets' defense was also key, as they took the ball away from the Heat 20 times, leading to 22 points, while only committing eight turnovers themselves. Kemba Walker paced the visitors with 24 points, four assists, a rebound and two steals. Nicolas Batum was the only other member of the first unit to reach double digits in the scoring column, collecting 12 points and adding six rebounds, four assists and two steals. Marvin Williams did manage to haul in 11 boards despite contributing a modest seven points, an assist, two steals and a block. Roy Hibbert left the game after five minutes on the court with a sore right knee, going scoreless over his brief stint. Lamb's 16 - point, eight - rebound performance led the bench, while Belinelli (12 points), Zeller (10 points) and Hawes (10 points) made key contributions as well. Hawes also came just one rebound short of a double - double and added two assists and two blocks. The Heat were led by a trademark Hassan Whiteside double - double (20 points, 15 boards) and he also recored a pair of blocks. Goran Dragic came within an assist of accomplishing the feat himself, tallying 14 points, nine dimes, four rebounds and a steal. Dion Waiters totaled 13 points, seven rebounds, three assists and a steal. Justise Winslow contributed 10 points, six rebounds and five assists, but struggled from the field, going just 4 - for - 14 overall and 1 - for - 6 from three - point range. Tyler Johnson paced the Miami bench with 12 points and six rebounds. The Hornets head back home to take on the Celtics on Saturday night, while the Heat remain home to take on the Spurs on Sunday.
["TeamStat(G,'Heat') has 1 Number of team assists ,has 91 Losses ,has 20 Total points ,has 1 Points in 3rd quarter ."
 "TeamStat(G,'Hornets') has 20 Number of team assists ,has 97 Losses ,has 8 Total points ,has 2 Points in 3rd quarter ."]