LaMelo Ball’s late layup, Miles Bridges’ buzzer block lift Hornets to 127-126 OT win over Heat

LaMelo Ball’s driving layup with 4.7 seconds left in overtime and Miles Bridges’ block at the buzzer lifted the Charlotte Hornets to a 127-126 win over the Miami Heat on Tuesday night, keeping Charlotte’s season alive and ending Miami’s in a 9-vs.-10 Eastern Conference play-in game at Spectrum Center.

The victory was Charlotte’s first postseason home win in a decade and pushes the Hornets within one more win of their first playoff appearance since 2016. Miami, which played most of the night without injured All-Star center Bam Adebayo, was eliminated in the single-elimination matchup.

Ball finished with 30 points and 10 assists, leading a Hornets team that entered the play-in as the East’s No. 9 seed at 44-38 after a strong second half of the regular season. Bridges added 28 points and nine rebounds, while Coby White scored 19, including one of the game’s defining shots.

With Charlotte trailing in the final seconds of regulation, White hit a turnaround 3-pointer with 10.8 seconds left to tie the score and force overtime. That shot set the stage for a tense extra period in which the lead changed hands and both teams’ seasons hung on each possession.

In the final sequence, Ball knifed into the lane and converted a go-ahead layup to give Charlotte a one-point lead. On Miami’s last possession, Davion Mitchell drove for what could have been a game-winning layup, but Bridges met him at the rim and blocked the attempt as time expired, preserving the 127-126 result.

Mitchell led Miami with 28 points, and Andrew Wiggins added 27 in the loss.

The win advances Charlotte to a second play-in game Friday, April 17, when the Hornets will face the loser of Wednesday’s 7-vs.-8 matchup between the Philadelphia 76ers and Orlando Magic. Under the NBA’s play-in format, the 7-10 seeds in each conference compete from April 14-17 for the final two playoff spots. The 9-vs.-10 game is a single-elimination contest; the winner must then defeat the loser of the 7-vs.-8 game to secure the No. 8 seed.

For a franchise that has struggled to break through, Tuesday’s result marked a rare postseason high. The Hornets had not won a postseason home game in 10 years and have not appeared in the playoffs since 2016. Ball and Bridges, who have become the core of Charlotte’s recent resurgence, were at the center of a night that blended long-awaited progress with significant controversy.

That controversy involved Adebayo, one of the league’s top big men and the centerpiece of Miami’s season. In the second quarter, Adebayo went down hard after a rebounding sequence involving Ball. Coverage of the game describes Ball appearing to sweep at Adebayo’s foot as Ball fell, leading to Adebayo’s awkward, hard fall to the floor.

Adebayo remained down and was attended to by trainers before walking gingerly to the locker room. The Heat initially listed him as questionable to return with a lower-back issue and later ruled him out for the rest of the game. He did not start the second half and did not return.

No foul was called on Ball on the play. Because officials did not call a foul on the floor, the sequence was not subject to in-game video review under current NBA rules, according to wire reports. That limitation has become a focal point of postgame discussion.

Wire coverage noted immediate debate among fans and on social media about whether the contact warranted a foul or some form of review, and whether the league should examine the play after the fact. As of late Tuesday, there was no official NBA disciplinary statement or detailed medical update beyond Miami’s in-game designation of Adebayo’s injury as a lower-back issue.

The timing and stakes amplified the scrutiny. Just over a month earlier, on March 10, Adebayo scored 83 points in a regular-season game, the second-highest single-game total in NBA history, in what was widely viewed as a defining performance of his season and a high point for Miami. On Tuesday, the Heat’s year ended with their star center watching from the locker room as a non-reviewable play helped shape an elimination game.

The combination of a high-leverage, single-elimination setting, the involvement of a marquee player and a rule that prevented review of an injurious play is likely to fuel broader questions about how the league’s replay system functions in the play-in tournament.

For Charlotte, however, the immediate focus shifts to Friday. One more win would end a playoff drought that has stretched a decade, and Tuesday’s frantic finish — Ball’s late layup, Bridges’ last-second block and White’s regulation-saving 3 — has the Hornets one step away from a long-awaited return to the postseason bracket.