The Miami Heat opened the 2015-2016 season with a win at home against the Charlotte Hortets 104-94. The Heat started Dwyane Wade and Goran Dragic in the backcourt, Luol Deng and Chris Bosh in the frontcourt, and Hassan Whiteside at center. The Hornets send out Kemba Walker and P.J. Hairston in the backcourt, Nicolas Batum and Marvin Williams in the frontcourt, and Al Jefferson at center.
The Heat had stellar play from their top 2 stars Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. Bosh finished the night with 21 points and 10 rebounds while Wade had 20 points and 5 assists. Off the bench, Gerald Green gave the Heat 30 quality minutes scoring 19 points. Jeremy Lin, a new guard with the Hornet came off the bench to score 17 points on 5-10 shooting. Walker added 19 points while Jefferson chipped in with 17. Justise Winslow had a great slam over three Hornets. Check it out below.
The Heat looked good together. Ideally, they’ll want to see more from Hassan Whiteside, the 7 foot center who came on big last year. Whiteside had just 4 points and 6 rebounds after averaging 11.8 points and 10.0 rebounds last year. Another player they’ll want to step up is Goran Dragic. Dragic signed a max deal this summer but contributed just 8 points and 6 assists.
Forbes recently did a study on the NBA’s best fans. They use five variables in their algorithm to determine which team has the best fans. The first variable is hometown crowd reach, which is a percentage of local individuals who listened, watched, or attended a game in the last year. The other variables consist of three years worth of television ratings, three years of capacity reached for an attendance based approach, three years of merchandise sales, and social media followers, which is the combination of Twitter followers and Facebook likes. There are also factors that count in behavioral variables such as loyalty and television ratings. Social media reach was calculated as a percent of the city population. Dual city teams had their local population cut in half to account for multiple team options in a single city.
The Miami Heat are on quite the skid as of recent losing five of their last six games. Throughout their first 18 games, the Heat have struggled with continuity. They have used six different starting lineups in their first 18 games. Dwyane Wade has recently missed seven games due to a hamstring injury, and Luol Deng injured his right hand, leaving him questionable for a couple of recent games.