PHOENIX — Salvage mission complete.
Moving past bad losses to the Golden State Warriors and Portland Trail Blazers that could have made this a road to ruin, the Miami Heat followed up Saturday night’s blowout victory over the Utah Jazz with a 111-102 victory Sunday night over the Phoenix Suns at Mortgage Matchup Center.
With the victory, the Heat closed out the five-game trip at 3-2 to improve to 25-22.
Shorthanded and sleep-deprived, the Heat found a way, with Jaime Jaquez Jr. settling things in the fourth quarter.
“To come out 3-2 is good. We’ll take that,” guard Norman Powell said. “And being above .500 on this road trip, I think it sets us up good for going home.”
Both teams were significantly shorthanded.
For the Heat, it was Tyler Herro (ribs) and Kel’el Ware (hamstring) already back in South Florida and Davion Mitchell (shoulder) missing the final three games of the trip.
For the Suns, it was Devin Booker (ankle) and Jalen Green (hamstring) sidelined.
In addition, the Heat did not arrive in Phoenix until 4:30 a.m. Sunday, after a late-arriving plane in Salt Lake City.
Of that turn-and-burn scenario, coach Erik Spoelstra said before the game, “They just dropped us off in parachutes like Navy SEALs. We’re ready to go.”
His team then soldiered through.
“This was a tough turnaround, and I’m not making an excuse for it,” Spoelstra said afterward. “I’m just saying when we got to bed at 6 and have two games in less than 22 hours, it’s fun. It’s fun to try to rally around the challenge.
“This oftentimes could be a scheduled loss, and everybody just absolutely rallied around the opportunity. And you have a moment like this. Hopefully it can lead to more momentum because it’s a tougher type scenario.”
The Heat got 22 points from Bam Adebayo, 20 from Jaquez, 16 from Powell and 10 points and 10 rebounds from Andrew Wiggins.
Five Degrees of Heat from Sunday night’s game:
1. Game flow: The Heat led 32-21 after the first period, 58-48 at halftime and 82-77 going into the fourth.
The Heat consistently built double-digit leads through each of the first three quarters, only to see the Suns consistently close the gap.
The Heat then matched their largest lead to that point when they went up 89-77 with 10:09 to play.
The difference then was the Heat reverted to a formula that had been so successful early this season, a Jaquez takeover, with the Heat giving the ball to their sixth man and getting out of the way, a payoff that included a 3-pointer that gave the Heat a 101-83 lead.
Jaquez scored 11 in the fourth quarter, also with three assists in the period.
“We knew how important this win was,” Jaquez said. “We know how important this next stretch of games is for us going into All-Star break. So we’re just taking that to heart and we’re done talking about it. We need to just go do it. And that’s kind of our message going into that game.”
2. Miss or miss: The Heat opened 1 of 13 on 3-pointers, with the lone conversion coming from Adebayo. The Suns weren’t much better at the outset, opening 2 of 12 on 3-pointers.
The Heat’s second 3-point conversion did not come until Nikola Jovic converted from the left corner. Powell followed with a 3-pointer on the Heat’s next possession.
The Suns stood 2 of 19 on 3-pointers at the half, the Heat 3 of 17. In that first half, Royce O’Neale was 0 for 6 on 3-pointers for the Suns, Powell 1 of 6 for the Heat.
The Heat closed 9 of 36 on 3-pointers, on a night they had to find another way. The Suns finished 7 of 35 on 3-pointers.
“More than anything,” Spoelstra said, “it was just the mentality, the collective spirit to try to accomplish something a little bit unique in a long NBA season.”
3. Powell persists: For weeks now, Powell has been a constant on the Heat injury report with back soreness.
The fact that he perseveres has been laudable, but the struggles have been real, as he stands now less than a week from finding out Sunday if he makes his first All-Star Game, when conference reserves are named.
“Yeah, he was pretty banged-up these last couple games,” Spoelstra said. “This one was in question because it was such a quick turnaround, and the only rest we really had was on the airplane. So, he wanted to give it a go. He passed all the tests to make himself available. And he contributed in other ways. He had ten rebounds. And he’s always a threat.”
It wasn’t just the need for a high volume of shots to get to his scoring total in this one, it was coming off a pair of games when he closed a combined 0 for 11 from behind the arc.
This time he closed 5 of 21 from the field, 2 of 11 on 3-pointers.
“There’s leading, there’s giving yourself up,” said Powell, who closed with 10 rebounds. “I’ve done that this whole week with playing hurt with my back spasm and everything like that. But tonight I wanted to make an emphasis on getting rebounds and securing the ball so we can get out in transition, and I was able to do that.”
4. Pesky presence: If Spoelstra was looking to inject energy into his team on the second night of the back-to-back, then he picked the right man in playing two-way player Myron Gardner as this third player off the bench.
In one first-quarter sequence, Gardner was part of a video review that ruled his hard foul on Oso Ighodaro was not a flagrant foul, then saw a video review go in his favor when a defensive goaltending call against him was ruled not to be goaltending, followed up by being called for a double-foul with the Suns’ Collin Gillespie, when push came to shove between the two away from the ball.
“Myron is continuing to build trust with everybody,” Spoelstra said. “You feel his energy right away.”
After that brief Gardner jolt, Dru Smith then took over in the second half, with arguably one of his best stretches in weeks. Smith closed with 11 points.
“I just go into the games just trying to stay ready,” Smith said. “And whatever minutes come my way then, I just try to make the most of them. So not really thinking too much about that, just while I’m out there trying to impact the game.”
5. Now, (brief) rest: After the five road games in seven days, the Heat now get their lone two-day break of January, with Monday and Tuesday off.
But then it’s back to the grind, with four games in five nights to follow, the product of the rescheduled game in Chicago from the Jan. 8 postponement there due to condensation on the court at the United Center.
That has the Heat hosting the Magic on Wednesday night, in Chicago on Thursday, and then home against the Bulls on Saturday and Sunday.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” Powell said of the break. “I definitely need the rest. And hopefully with these two days I can get everything to calm down and be ready to go.”