Hornets fire radio play-by-play announcer HEAT 116, BUCKS 114:

The Charlotte Hornets announced that radio play-by-play announcer John Focke, who tweeted a racial slur during a broadcast of a Utah JazzDenver Nuggets game in the middle of August, will not be back next season.

The team made the announcement Thursday afternoon on the verified Twitter page of the communications department.

“The Charlotte Hornets announced today that John Focke will not return as the team's radio broadcaster due to a violation of the organization's social media policy,” the team said in a statement. “Since this is a personnel matter, the organization will not comment any further. The Hornets thank John for all of his efforts during the 2019-20 NBA season.”

The tweet came Aug. 17, during a first-round playoff game between the Jazz and the Nuggets.

His tweet appeared to swap “Nuggets” for the slur. He originally tweeted: “Shot making in this Jazz-(slur) game is awesome! Murray and Mitchell going back and forth what a game!”

Focke later apologized and took the tweet down Monday night, calling it a “horrific error.”

The Miami Heat grabbed control of their East semifinal matchup with a win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night — becoming the first No. 5 seed to take a 2-0 series lead over a No. 1 seed. Jimmy Butler was fouled by Giannis Antetokounmpo with no time remaining, the referees said, a call that was affirmed in a review after the initial whistle. The ball was out of Butler's hands when Antetokounmpo clearly made contact. Butler rattled home a free throw on the first attempt, and then made a second one that was irrelevant.