Whiteside, Heat step up
Wade adds 22 in breakthough win over Portland
Heat center Hassan Whiteside reacts after
PORTLAND, Ore. —If the opening game of this five-game trip set the tone of what’s to follow, it is going to be a wild ride.
Up 15 going into the fourth quarter, the Miami Heat found themselves in a fight to the finish in what turned into a one-point game before becoming a 118-108 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday night at the Moda Center. The Heat snapped a three-game losing streak.
“It was one of our better responses to how we’ve been playing,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We probably are very difficult to prepare for — you don’t know which team you are going to get, and neither does the head coach.
“But [Tuesday] it was more to our identity. We’ve talked about it enough all year, ad nauseam. There was a defensive disposition to the game and that carried out all the way to the end.”
The Heat got quality performances from Hassan Whiteside and Dwyane Wade, with Whiteside totaling 28 points on 11-of-12 shooting and 11 rebounds and Wade adding 22 points and nine rebounds.
C.J. McCollum led the Trail Blazers with 33 points, shooting 7 of 14 on 3-pointers, but backcourt partner Damian Lillard was limited to 13 points on 5-of-15 shooting, albeit with 10 assists.
The Heat went into the fourth quarter up 94-79, their largest lead to that point. But that’s when the free throw late Tuesday to help seal a win over the Trail Blazers’ began to load up on 3-pointers, and with 6:54 to play the Heat’s lead was down to 101-100 after a McCollum 3-pointer.
James Johnson followed with a 3-pointer for a 104-100 Heat lead. Whiteside later scored inside to make it 110-105.
Active in his move into a reserve role, Johnson then scored inside for a 112-105 lead, and the Heat held on from there.
“Guys found a way to get a couple of stops and Hassan had a couple of rebounds and some big plays down the stretch,” Spoelstra said. “Then you just try to execute something coherently and live with the results, and that’s what happened at the end.
“I didn’t feel at all going down the stretch that we were battling with ourselves or battling with the pressure at all. Guys were rising to the occasion. We’ll take it. We needed this probably a lot more than they did.”
Five degrees of Heat from Tuesday’s game:
1. Another lineup: Mum going into the game about Johnson’s lethargic play, Spoelstra finally relented and replaced Johnson in the starting lineup with Kelly Olynyk.
It left the Heat with their 19th starting lineup in 52 games, with Olynyk flanked by Whiteside, Justise Winslow, Josh Richardson and Tyler Johnson. The unit had played eight total minutes together prior to Tuesday and been outscored by six.
The Heat then jumped to an early nine-point lead, and when they led 34-30 going into the second period it matched their highest-scoring first period since they scored 34 on Dec. 8 against the Clippers.
“Look, we’ve had to make a few changes with the starting lineup,” Spoelstra said. “That’s just the way it’s been going, and [I] really felt down deep, with some reflection, that there had to just be a different pivot with the starting group.” Los Angeles
2. The complete Whiteside: Whiteside showed the depth of his offensive repertoire, including a pair of jumpers, offering a Michael Jordan-like shrug after making the second. He also converted his first three free throws on a 6-of-7 night from the line.
“I think he’s put together three straight games of very competitive basketball that could be winning basketball,” Spoelstra said. “It was absolutely winning basketball on both ends of the court. [He] anchored our defense”
With Olynyk in the starting lineup at power forward, it opened additional minutes in the center rotation, including in the fourth quarter.
“You feel great when Coach has me out there,” Whiteside said. “It’s really a great feeling.”
Going against the mass of Jusuf Nurkic, this was a night when the finesse game was the right game for Whiteside.
3. Waiters for three: Three days after Dion Waiters bemoaned being reduced to a 3-pointer shooter, Spoelstra said at Tuesday’s shootaround that was not the case.
“I take anything he says with a grain of salt,” Spoelstra said. “He knows how he has to be to help us and to contribute. And if he continues to work at it, he’ll find rhythm.
“But it’s just never easy when you’ve been out for a long period of time. And he’s going through that transition right now.”
Waiters took only three shots in Tuesday’s first half, all 3-pointers, and made them all.
His fourth shot also was a 3-point attempt, with that one missing. On his fifth attempt Waiters also a missed 3-pointer. Those turned out to be his only attempts.
“I don’t know,” Waiters said. “That’s all I’m getting.”
4. More Wade: Wade’s farewell tour continues to be filled with meaningful minutes. He again effective as a sixth man and this time he also was active on the glass.
The ovation for Wade when he entered in the first quarter was among the loudest during the final stops of his “One Last Dance,” with each stop of this five-game trip representing the last visit to each city.
Wade again played closing time.
“He is somebody that’s special, that’s different,” Spoelstra said. during
5. Mid-Richardson: Richardson sizzled at the start, opening 6 of 6 from the field, almost all from midrange. He closed the first period with 14 points.
From there, he became a focus of the Blazers’ defense, with only one additional, shot — a miss —over the middle two quarters. He finished with 18 points.