{"id":238575,"date":"2026-04-15T03:37:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T03:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/15\/how-did-they-not-see-that-nba-controversy-as-coach-fumes-heat-eliminated-after-dangerous-act\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T03:37:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T03:37:00","slug":"how-did-they-not-see-that-nba-controversy-as-coach-fumes-heat-eliminated-after-dangerous-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/15\/how-did-they-not-see-that-nba-controversy-as-coach-fumes-heat-eliminated-after-dangerous-act\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018How did they not see that?\u2019 NBA controversy as coach fumes, Heat eliminated after \u2018dangerous\u2019 act"},"content":{"rendered":"

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LaMelo Ball was hero and villain as the Charlotte Hornets lifted their curse to send the Miami Heat tumbling out of the NBA play-in tournament with a thrilling 127-126 overtime victory on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Watch NBA with ESPN on Kayo Sports | Stream an average 9 LIVE Regular Season games per week plus the best of the NBA Playoffs.| New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

Charlotte had never won a win-or-go-home postseason game in 12 previous attempts and looked in danger of extending that record after blowing a 125-120 lead with 26 seconds remaining to allow Miami to edge ahead 126-125.<\/p>\n

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After Miami star Tyler Herro had sunk a superb corner three-pointer to make it 125-123, Ball carelessly turned over possession and then gave away three free-throws with a rash lunge on Herro.<\/p>\n

Herro drained all three shots to give Miami the lead with just nine seconds left.<\/p>\n

Ball though made amends with a determined driving layup to make it 127-126 before an athletic block from Miles Bridges snuffed out Miami\u2019s last-gasp attempt to win it.<\/p>\n

Ball was at the centre of controversy over an incident in the second quarter which led to Miami star Bam Adebayo hobbling out of the game.<\/p>\n

After being blocked during a drive to the basket, Ball reached out and tripped Adebayo with a tug on his standing leg, sending the Miami star crashing to the hardwood. He played no further part in the game.<\/p>\n

Miami coach Erik Spoelstra was furious that Ball escaped an ejection. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe referees are there for what? How did they not see that? I don\u2019t want this to be an excuse, Charlotte was incredible at the end,\u201d Spoelstra fumed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s cute. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s funny. I think it\u2019s a stupid play. It\u2019s a dangerous play. Our best player is out.<\/p>\n

\u201c(LaMelo) should be penalised for that. I don\u2019t think that belongs in the game, tripping guys, shenanigans. Someone has got to see that. And he should have been thrown out of the game for that.\u201d <\/p>\n

The victory means Charlotte, beaten in their two previous appearances in the play-in tournament in 2021 and 2022, remain alive in the postseason while Miami are eliminated.<\/p>\n

Charlotte will face the loser of Thursday\u2019s Eastern Conference play-in game between the eighth-seeded Orlando Magic and seventh-seeded Philadelphia 76ers.<\/p>\n

The reward for the winner of that game on Friday is a first-round playoff series against top seeds Detroit.<\/p>\n

Ball finished with 30 points, 10 assists and five rebounds, while Bridges added 28 points and nine rebounds. Coby White had a crucial 19-point contribution from the bench, making five-of-eight three-pointers.<\/p>\n

Davion Mitchell led Miami\u2019s scorers with 28 points while Andrew Wiggins added 27 and Herro 23.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LaMelo Ball was hero and villain as the Charlotte Hornets lifted their curse to send the Miami Heat tumbling out of the NBA play-in tournament with a thrilling 127-126 overtime victory on Wednesday. Watch NBA with ESPN on Kayo Sports | Stream an average 9 LIVE Regular Season games per week plus the best of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":238576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[156],"class_list":{"0":"post-238575","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups","8":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}