Charles Lee says the Hornets ‘learned a lot about ourselves’ in a 115-110 win over the Heat a night after the boos

Less than 24 hours after their home crowd booed them off the floor, the Charlotte Hornets beat the Miami Heat 115-110 on Saturday, October 24, at Spectrum Center, and Charles Lee said the night told his team more about itself than any game so far. Charlotte is 2-1, and the win came on the second night of a back-to-back that opened with a 128-81 loss to Atlanta in the home opener.

Lee pointed to the circumstances before the result. “I thought today we were going to learn a lot about ourselves,” he said after the game, listing the boos, the back-to-back and the injuries on top of Friday’s performance. His verdict on how the group answered was short: “they were connected, they were competitive, they were together.”

What changed from Friday

The clearest sign of that came with the ball. Charlotte had committed 48 turnovers across its first two games; against Miami it had 15. The Hornets also won the glass 45-37, took 10 offensive rebounds and finished with a 21-10 edge in second-chance points, according to the team.

The fouling was the other fix. Miami shot 14 free throws in the first quarter alone, and the Hornets then held the Heat to 11 more over the final three quarters while keeping Giannis Antetokounmpo to 14 points on 4-of-11 shooting. Antetokounmpo fouled out in the fourth.

Lee leaned on four scorers. Brandon Miller had 34 points, seven rebounds and a game-best plus-20 in 36 minutes, getting there with a career-high 11 made free throws on a 10-of-29 shooting night. Dennis Schröder added 25 in a team-high 37:54, Naz Reid scored 23 with five threes, and Grayson Allen had 20 off the bench in 34 minutes. Charlotte has had four 20-point scorers in a game just three times since the 2025-26 season began.

A clutch win, finally

The game nearly got away. A 15-0 burst early in the third quarter put Charlotte up 83-63, and the lead was 96-75 after three. Miami then went on a 29-8 run to tie the game 104-104 with 3:45 left. About 25 seconds later Allen hit a three as the shot clock expired and was fouled, a four-point play that put the Hornets ahead for good. Charlotte got stops on the next three Miami trips and made 7 of 8 free throws in the closing stretch.

That matters for a team that started 0-5 in clutch games last season and finished 10-18 in them, the fourth-worst mark in the league. Lee’s late-game choice at center paid off too: Ryan Kalkbrenner played 22:38 off the bench, was a plus-17, and grabbed two big rebounds and blocked a shot over the last 2:11, while starter Moussa Diabate played 20:53 and finished minus-16.

What comes next

Charlotte stays home to host the Washington Wizards at 7 p.m. ET on Monday, October 26, the last game of a three-game stand. Charlotte went 4-0 against Washington last season. Follow it in the Wizards-Hornets Game Center.