The Miami Heat beat the Charlotte Hornets for the second straight time Wednesday night by a score of 115-104. Head coach Erik Spoelstra, Jimmy Butler, and Kyle Lowry spoke after the game to talk about the performance the collective unit had, but also tackling the unusual scheduling the team faces.

Before the game, Spoelstra said to ClutchPoints that one of his goals was to beat the same team twice in a row. Miami got the job done in that facet as the head coach called it a “little opportunity” to take the next step.

The game started horrendously for the Heat in the first quarter as they committed nine turnovers and played very sloppy, but fortunately, so was Charlotte. They would end up finishing the first half on a positive note as Spoelstra told the media that everybody got the “horrible basketball” out of them in the second half.

“You look for all these little opportunities for your team to take another step. We we haven't been able to do it this year. It's a small thing. It's not everything, but it's something and we wanted to be able to do that tonight. It was a pretty ugly first half, we basically went into halftime telling everybody to take five big breaths and just let out all that horrible basketball and see if we can come out and play a much better second half and I thought we did,” Spoelstra said. “The third quarter was much more intentional. And then they made a run probably from the nine minute mark to the five minute mark in the fourth quarter, but I thought the group that was out there stabilized and it was important for them to go through that and find a way to finish it off.”

Kyle Lowry talking about the up-and-down first half for Miami

Kyle Lowry, Miami Heat

One of the Heat's key contributors was starting point guard Kyle Lowry who scored 17 points. He said that despite finishing the first half with 14 turnovers, they concluded the half well with scoring 13 straight points and putting star Jimmy Butler into the right spots.

“I think we finished the first half extremely well. I know we turned the ball over but I think in the last 2:32 we went on a 11-0 run so we kind of balanced it out and figured out how to play,” Lowry said. ” And we got Jimmy [Butler] the ball in the right positions and the right spots. He made plays tonight and he got 10 assists so when you put him in a spot to be successful like that, he don't have to score, he made us all better.”

The Heat built up a sizable lead going into the fourth quarter and the microscope was put under them to see if they would blow another big lead. They sustained it for the most part, though the Hornets made it slightly interesting taking their deficit down to nine points.

Butler on the Heat's young players closing the game out

However, Miami would quickly build their lead back up and close the game out. In fact, Butler and Lowry sat out the last five or so minutes of the game as Spoelstra wanted extra minutes for the second unit. Butler, who scored 15 points, expresses his confidence with the young players and said he sees the work they put in behind the scenes.

“I mean, we have to be confident. We see the work that they put into it every day. But we also know we have a tendency to give up leads if we're brutally honest. I'm glad they closed out the game strong,” Butler said. “Taking and making good shots a majority of the time, but it's good to see them gain confidence and you know that moment to know that it's on you to win the game and they did it and don't matter if it's by 1 or 21. They had the lead and we won.”

The bench would score 45 points in total and close out the game as they were a major reason the Heat left Wednesday night with a victory. Miami's victory puts them at 14-10 on the season which is good for seventh in the Eastern Conference.

Butler on facing another back-to-back

However, they will need to have short-term memory as they have to play Thursday on the tail-end of the back-to-back. Miami will face the Chicago Bulls Thursday as the schedule continues to be grueling. For Butler though, he knows that's the league they're in and said to ClutchPoints that even though everybody isn't rested, they got to “get the job done.”

‘That's the league that we are in. Games come quickly in this league. We got Chicago coming in and we played them twice already this year and we're one on one with him. So you know we got our work cut out for us,” Butler said “We're on our home floor so we're supposed to be able to protect that. But on the back-to-back, it's definitely all hands on deck. Everybody may not be feeling the best, but we got to go out there and get the job done.”

In the three back-to-backs the Heat have had so far this season, they lost two straight twice and won both games the other time on Nov. 11 and 12 as a part of the seven-game winning streak. When ClutchPoints told Spoelstra that and asked what's the mindset for the team, an imaginary lightbulb seemed to light up in his head.

“I don't know, maybe you just gave me my message for tomorrow,” Spoelstra said.

The Heat will play the Bulls Thursday night and then Chicago again on Saturday, December 16. Beginning Thursday, the team will play the next four games and six of their next seven at the Kaseya Center, hopefully with some returning injured players back for Miami.