By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Clippers continued the playoffs with their second home wins.
Dwyane Wade scored 28 points, Hassan Whiteside was a franchise playoff-record 8-for-8 from the field and finished with 17 points, and the Heat beat the Charlotte Hornets 115-103 on Wednesday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference first-round series. Slovenian Goran Dragic scored 18 points and British Luol Deng finished with 16 for Miami, which had 72 points by halftime and never trailed in the second half.
The bad news for Charlotte is that Frenchman Nicolas Batum left with 10:43 remaining after spraining his left ankle, heading straight to the locker room for examination and was quickly ruled out for the rest of the night. It remains to be seen if he will play in the next game.
LeBron James scored 27 points, J.R. Smith made seven of Cleveland’s NBA playoff record-tying 20 3-pointers, and the Cavs opened a 2-0 lead in their increasingly testy series with a 107-90 victory over Detroit on Wednesday night.
In the West the bench scored 43 points in the Clippers’ 102-81 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night, giving Los Angeles a 2-0 lead in its first-round playoff series.