Charlotte Hornets Look To Even Playoff Series Monday Night

Tonight, the Charlotte Hornets play the Miami Heat in Game 4 of the first round of the playoffs.

Led by a big third quarter from Frank Kaminsky, who finished with 15 points and six rebounds, the Charlotte Hornets used an 18-0 run to finally create separation from the Heat.

Marvin Williams, a non-factor in the first two games, had 12 points and 14 rebounds for the Hornets.

The victory moved the Hornets within 2-1 in the series, with Game 4 at 7 p.m. Monday back on the Hornets' court and now a Game 5 assured Wednesday at 8 p.m.at AmericanAirlines Arena. Golden State won the first one without him, but Houston took Game 3 on Thursday night to cut the series deficit to 2-1.

The Charlotte Hornets were able to defeat the Miami Heat in game four of their first round match-up.

Lin was one of the players pegged as the players to step up for the Hornets with starting forward Nicolas Batum expected to be out this first round series. The victory was largely due in part to some excellent leadership and scoring from point-guards Kemba Walker and Jeremy Lin. The Hornets would continue their dominant stretch when the second half began.

Jonas Valanciunas led the Raptors with 16 points.

Charlotte will hope to carry their confidence and momentum from two straight wins at home onto the road as they attempt to take the lead in the series. Beside Whiteside, Miami will play without Chris Bosh and Tyler Johnson, who may return to the floor in a game or two. "We've got to just keep doing that and we can't get comfortable because at the end of the day, if we don't win game 4, that's a serious, serious hole that we're going to be in". On Saturday, Mahinmi scored a career-high 20 points, and had 10 rebounds and five assists, both playoff career highs.

For the Heat, there were 19 points from Luol Deng, 17 from Dwyane Wade and 13 points and 18 rebounds from Whiteside, but no game-changing performances.

It's a matchup that Walker should dominate through the first three games, Walker shot 36.1 percent from the field, including 4 of 19 in Game 3.

The loss by Miami allowed Charlotte to tie the series at 2-2. Dwyane Wade nearly recorded a triple-double with 12 points, 10 assists, and seven rebounds.

The runner-up for the league's Most Improved Player buried a pull-up jumper from 18 feet and sank both foul shots after drawing a fourth foul on Wade on a drive.

PACERS PULL LEVEL In Indianapolis, French center Ian Mahinmi scored 22 points, pulled down 10 rebounds and handed out five assists on Saturday to help the Indiana Pacers to a 100-83 series-tying win over Toronto in the National Basketball Association playoffs.

The Heat had actually hit 10 of their first 15 shots and finished 27-of-79, so they were 17-of-64 in the final 40 minutes. They played with passion and energy, shared the ball and defended. Collectively, they only scored 22 points for the team.