The Charlotte Hornets lost a tight one to the Miami Heat 116-114. Miami led pretty much all game long, but Charlotte hung around long enough to make things interesting. Miles Bridges, Terry Rozier and the rest of the team came within one point of tying the game late in the fourth quarter, but they just didn't have enough in the tank to stick it out.

Sloppy turnovers and bad fouls ultimately led to the Hornets getting drowned out in this one. And that's exactly what Bridges and Rozier mentioned as their downfall in the postgame chatter.

What killed the Hornets' momentum?

“We just gotta do better not fouling,” Bridges said. “They got a lot of easy free throws, they were damn near better than a layup. They did a good job getting to the line.”

Miles Bridges couldn't have kept it more real. The Heat attempted 12 more free throws than the Hornets did on Monday night, and they drained 27 of them. That earned Miami nearly a quarter of its points in the game. Plus, it slows down the pace of the game, which impacts a young team like Charlotte that likes to run in transition.

“Jimmy and Kyle hunt for fouls,” Bridges continued. “You just gotta be disciplined, show your hands. They're gonna attack you every play. If we take care of the ball and we don't foul we win this game. We gotta go into the next game thinking that.”

Terry Rozier's two cents

Steve Clifford shared the same sentiments as Bridges about the free throw issues, and so did his starting point guard Terry Rozier.

“I think we did all the right things. Obviously we just fell short to a very disciplined team,” Rozier said. “A team like this, they don’t really give too many possessions away, so when you turn the ball over and you’re not getting the best looks for your team, you put yourself in a tough position because these guys are very disciplined offensively and defensively.”

The Heat are filled with veteran players that know how to manipulate the game to get what they want throughout the course of a game. Whether fans feel like they're “foul hunters” and “they're hurting the game,” it's hard to knock a guy that is taking advantage of getting the easiest points possible. Regardless of how anyone feels, every player seeks out tricks of the trade to bend the game in their favor. Clearly Miami won the clever game on Monday night.

As for Charlotte, these slow starts need to be nipped in the bud as soon as possible. It's a bad habit to get off to slow starts heading into halftime and than put forth a herculean effort to erase a double-digit lead. In order to get back in the win column more consistently, the Hornets are got figure that out.