The Miami Heat will conclude a five-game road trip, when they take on the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center on Monday night.
The Miami Heat (27-19) are coming off of an 106-105 win over the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday night, and are looking to cool off a Houston Rockets team that has won five of their last six games.
In their victory over the Hornets, the Heat started the game off well; leading 31-27 at the end of the first quarter and then 57-48 at halftime. However, the Hornets outscored the Heat 35-16 in the third quarter, giving them a ten-point lead going into the fourth quarter.
Fast forward to the final 37 seconds of the game: Miami trailed by five points, and the Hornets seemed to have the game in the bag. But then James Johnson scored a dunk off a pass from Kelly Olynyk. And immediately following that, Josh Richardson stole the inbounds pass out of the hands of Nic Batum, then found Johnson, who hit the 3-pointer to even the score at 105 with 30 seconds remaining in the game.
Kemba Walker would miss a shot at the basket, and Kelly Olynyk grabbed the rebound, then pushed the ball up the court and got fouled by Dwight Howard with 0.2 seconds remaining. After missing the first free throw, Olynyk would make the second to complete the comeback and give Miami the win.
Wayne Ellington, who made his first start of the season, finished with 26 points and three assists, while Johnson pitched in 22 points, seven assists, and six rebounds.
For the Houston Rockets (32-12), they’re coming off of an 116-108 win over the Golden State Warriors. Chris Paul led the Rockets to victory with 33 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, and James Harden contributed 22 points and eight assists.
This will be the first of a two-game season series between the Heat and Rockets. While it was a different beast last year, it’s still important to note that the Heat swept the Rockets two games to none last season, and have won three out of the last four meetings.
Unfortunately, Miami will once again be without Goran Dragic (knee bruise), Tyler Johnson (ankle), Dion Waiters (ankle), Rodney McGruder (leg), and Okaro White (foot). As for Houston, Chinanu Onuaku (sinus) and Zhou Qi (elbow) are sidelined, but will be getting Trevor Ariza and Gerald Green back from their suspensions.
The Miami Heat face a tall task Monday night, going up against a formidable Houston Rockets team and will unfortunately have to do it without some of their really important players. But the Heat, undoubtedly, won’t make excuses and will compete to the best of their ability. Anything can happen in this league, especially when it comes to a grind-it-out team like this one.
Next: The Miami Heat make no excuses, and that's their key to success
Tip-off is scheduled for 8 PM ET.