Heat cool Suns
Miami moves up in playoff standings; ends homestand 4-1
Miami defeats Phoenix 125-103 at home.
MIAMI — Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra didn’t want to demean but rather be diplomatic, so he spoke in code before Monday night’s 125-103 victory over the Phoenix Suns at AmericanAirlines Arena.
“This is the type of team, it’s that type of team, they’re third in pace, they attack the paint and they offensive rebound,” he said of the blueprint that has been so efficient against his team this season. “I could list the teams — I’m not going to because that’d probably be interpreted the wrong way — but there’s three or four teams that we’ve struggled with this year, that if I just said those three things, that would describe them and we’ve struggled with them.”
in the Brooklyn Nets, Orlando Magic, Los Angeles Lakers and Atlanta Hawks.
The common thread to the Suns is that all defeated the Heat while in possession of abysmal records.
Message received and no such slip-up this time — with the loss dropping the Suns to 19-47.
With the victory, the Heat closed out a 4-1 homestand — the lone loss coming against the LakAs
ers -- and moved to 34-30, which pushed them into the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference by virtue of their season-series tiebreaker over the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Heat were paced by the power game of center Hassan Whiteside, who closed with 24 points and 14 rebounds, not needed for the fourth quarter, supported by 17 points from point guard Goran Dragic, 15 from reserve big man Kelly Olynyk and 12 points and 12 rebounds from Justise Winslow.
While the loss aided the Suns in their own lottery quest, it hurt from the perspective that they also hold the Heat’s first-round pick — unless it is among the first seven selections — from the 2015 trade for Dragic.
Guard Devin Booker, even while the focus of the Heat’s defensive attention, paced the Suns with 31 points on 12-of-22 shooting.
The Heat were without 3-point specialist Wayne Ellington for a third consecutive game due to a bruised left quadriceps, but had Bam Adebayo back after he missed Saturday’s victory over the Detroit Pistons to attend the funeral of his grandmother. Adebayo did not play until the waning minutes, with Spoelstra otherwise 10 deep with his rotation.
The Heat also had guard Tyler Johnson back, after he had missed two games with a bruised left quadriceps, showing a bit of rust in his return, as the fifth reserve off the Heat bench, closing 2 of 8 in 18 minutes.
The Heat recalled guard Derrick Walton Jr. from their G League affiliate as insurance for their backcourt, but Walton was inactive.
Even with Tyler Johnson back and Adebayo available, the Heat remained with Saturday’s starting lineup of Whiteside at center, Luke Babbitt and James Johnson at forward, and Josh Richardson and Dragic at guard.
The Heat’s lead, amid a dominant third period by Whiteside, ballooned to 20 in the quarter.
But with yet another end-of-period meltdown, this one allowing a fourpoint Suns possession, the Heat’s lead instantly was cut from 17 to 93-80 going into the fourth.
The Heat then seized control from there.
The Heat pushed to a 15-point lead late in the second period and took a 61-48 edge into the intermission, with Whiteside up to nine points and nine rebounds at the break.
The Heat shot 9 of 19 on 3-pointers in the first half, forcing eight Suns turnovers.
The Heat moved to a 30-20 lead late in the opening period before the Suns closed within 30-27 by the end of the quarter.
Babbitt, who opened by missing his first three 3-point attempts, then made his final foul 3-pointers in the first quarter, to lead all scorers with 12 points over the first 12 minutes. The four conversions tied his career high for 3-pointers in a game.
It was the final game of the two-game season series. The Heat won the first matchup 126-115 Nov. 8 in Phoenix, behind 29 points from Dragic and 23 points and 10 rebounds from Whiteside, shooting .531 from the field.
The Heat entered having won 14 of the previous 15 meetings, including the previous seven at AmericanAirlines Arena. The Suns entered with their last victory at AmericanAirlines Arena was 104-96 on Nov. 3, 2009.
The game opened a back-to-back set for the Heat that concludes Tuesday against the Washington Wizards at Capital One Center, the Heat’s penultimate back-to-back of the season.