■ Heat hold off Pacers in late Wednesday game.

It is that rare ability to go from lifeless to stirring.

It worked for the Miami Heat on Monday night in New York and worked again Wednesday night in Indiana.

This time the first half produced a pedestrian 43 points, with a 13- and 15-point deficits along the way.

No matter, with closing time again winning time in a 92-87 victory over the Indiana Pacers at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, putting the record back to .500, at 24-24.

“We’re really buying into our identity,” guard Duncan Robinson said, “and if we defend like that, on any given night it will really give us a chance.”

The Heat held the Pacers to 40%shooting, allowing them to win with 41% shooting of their own.

“Winning is winning; get it how you got to get it,” forward Jimmy Butler said. “I think we did a good job of locking in on defense.

“Now is the time to start practicing these play habits, and that was a playoff game for us.”

Distancing themselves from the six-game losing streak that ended Monday, the Heat got 20 points from Robinson, 18 from Butler, 17 from Tyler Herro and 16 from Bam Adebayo.

The Pacers, even more listless in the second half that the Heat were in the first half, got nine points and 15 rebounds from Domantas Sabonis and 15 points and six rebounds from Myles Turner.

The Heat, who won Monday at Madison Square Garden despite scoring only 36 firsthalf points, now are home for a four-game homestand that run through April 8.

“What makes our team good,” Herro said, “is being able to find different ways to win.”

The Heat remained without guard Kendrick Nunn, who missed his second consecutive game after spraining his right ankle in the first half of Friday’s loss in Charlotte at the start of the three-game trip.

The Heat went into the fourth quarter down 67-65, fell behind by six early in the fourth, but consecutive Robinson 3-pointers produced a 79-78 lead with 7:42 left, the Heat’s first lead since 17-14.

The Heat then pushed to a seven-point advantage with 66 seconds left on an Adebayo jumper.

A Turner 3-pointer later cut the Pacers’ deficit to 90-87, but only 1.7 seconds remained.

“We’re starting to wrap our minds around our identity of our pathway to success,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “And a lot of times that’s going to be these defensive games.

“It shows that you can win in different ways, even in today’s era.”

The saving grace for the Heat over the first half was the 3-point shooting of Robinson, who finished the first 24 minutes 4 of 5 on 3-pointers. The rest of the Heat shot 2 of 14 from beyond the arc in the first half.

“My teammates were putting me in position to be successful,” he said.

Robinson kept going from there, closing 6 of 11 on 3-pointers, now up to .399 from beyond the arc on the season.