Heat fall to Wizards
Whiteside’s 21 rebounds go for naught in loss.
MIAMI — Erik Spoelstra laid it out clearly before the game.
“You want to test and meat hat sure yourself against teams that are ahead of you in the conference,” the Miami Heat coach said.
While they passed a few quizzes along the way Wednesday night, including overcoming an early 13-point deficit, the Heat ultimately failed to measure up in what turned into a 102-93 loss to the Washington Wizards at American Airlines Arena.
While Heat center Hassan Whiteside certainly stood tallest, closing with 14 points and 21 rebounds, the Heat lacked enough to offset the Wizards’ backcourt of Bradley Beal and John Wall, with Wall finishing with 27 points and Beal 26.
The Heat were down to 12 available players in uniform, one below the NBA game-day limit, with the team announcing shortly before game time reserve forward Okaro White is out with a broken foot sustained during Tuesday’s practice.
The Heat went with the same starting lineup for a fourth consecutive game this season for the first time, with Justise Winslow apparently locked in at power forward, alongside Whiteside, Josh Richardson, Dion Waiters and Goran Dragic.
The game opened a home-and-home series against the Wizards that concludes Friday in Washington, two of the four games in the season series.
The Heat pushed to an 80-73 lead early in the fourth quarter while Whiteside was on the bench.
But the Wizards then attacked Heat small lineups that had Kelly Olynyk and then James Johnson at center, moving to an 87-83 lead before Whiteside was reinserted.
Along the way, Wizards power forward Markieff Morris both fouled out and was called for a pair of technical fouls, leading to the rare disqualification-ejection combination.
The Heat later moved within 93-88 on a Waiters jumper with 1:37 to play, but a technical foul on Tyler Johnson and solid foul shooting allowed Washington to close it out.
The Heat got a boost early in the third period when Dragic hit a 3-pointer in a 12-1 run that helped the Heat trim their deficit to 62-61. The Heat later tied it 64-64 in the period on a Waiters 3-pointer.
From there, the Heat went into the fourth quarter up 74-71, outscoring Washington 25-10 in the third, with Whiteside already with 14 points and 18 rebounds to that stage.
The Heat’s lockdown defense limited the Wizards to 4-of-19 shooting in the third period.
Again committing bad turnovers, including one alley-oop off the backboard from Winslow, the Heat were up to nine at halftime, when they trailed 61-49.
There was little margin for error, as it was, for the Heat over those opening 24 minutes, with the Wizards 7 of 9 on 3-pointers and 10 of 10 on free throws in the first half.
Wall was up to 16 points by then, with the Heat fueled by 13 first-half points from Tyler Johnson.
With Tyler Johnson moving to 3 of 4 on 3-pointers, the Heat put together a 9-2 run in the second period to trim what had earlier been a 13-point deficit to 44-38 midway through the second period, before Washington again seized control.
The type of solid start that had fueled the Heat during their just-completed trip this time was missing, with the Heat trailing 30-19 at the end of the opening period, despite eight points and eight rebounds in the quarter by Whiteside.
While Whiteside was up at the outset, Dragic was down, scoreless in the opening period, on 0-for-4 shooting.
The Wizards shot 4 of 6 on 3-pointers in the first quarter, with Wall converting both of his attempts, with the Heat just 1 of 5 from beyond the arc in the period.
Whiteside and Waiters (with seven points) were the only Heat players with more than two in the first quarter.
The Heat swept last season’s four games against the Wizards and entered on a five-game winning streak against Washington.
The game was the first in two weeks for the Heat at AmericanAirlines Arena, after a 3-3 trip that ended with Sunday’s loss to the Detroit Pistons.