Miami Heat: A tale of two halves for the Miami Heat in Phoenix
The Miami Heat faced the Phoenix Suns on their home floor on Thursday night. They would need to be better than they were in Denver to get a win.
The Miami Heat played the second game of a three-game getaway on Thursday night. After taking a nasty loss at the hands of the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday, the Miami Heat were right back at it on Thursday against the Suns.
While the Miami Heat were sure to be motivated by what occurred in Denver, as well as the fact that the Suns were also off to a 5-2 record on the season, there were major questions heading into the matchup. These concerns came in the form of an injury update from Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald.
Correction: Derrick Jones Jr. is probable and Chris Silva missed shootaround due to a cold. https://t.co/bzEhbCc1jP
— Anthony Chiang (@Anthony_Chiang) November 7, 2019
The above didn’t turn out to be exactly the case, the Miami Heat were able to have Udonis Haslem and Derrick Jones Jr. on the bench, while Justise Winslow missed this game with headaches after that nasty head smash with Paul Millsap in Denver on Tuesday. As Coach Spo always says though, the Miami Heat “have enough” and enough they had.
The game started out pretty evenly. The Miami Heat got out to three different 12 point leads in the first half. It was much of the same for the second half.
The Suns cut it close at times, making the Heat a bit more anxious than they would have liked, but the Heat always seemed to be in control. The Miami Heat won the game 124-108.
The real story of the game is how the Heat got it done. It was all Jimmy Butler in the first half, but it was all Goran Dragic in the second half.
Jimmy Butler had a 30 point first half for the Heat, carrying them for the entire half, starting with a 12 minute 18 point first quarter. Goran Dragic led the way with a 20 point second half while only missing one shot and closed the third quarter with a buzzer-beating three that was apart of a sequence of three back to back deep balls for the Dragon.
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Jimmy Butler finished with 34 points, five rebounds, and four assists. Goran Dragic finished with 25 points, six rebounds, and four assists on 5-7 from three and 9-16 from the field. The Miami Heat head to Los Angeles on Friday to face LeBron James and the L.A. Lakers.