The Miami Heat had a chance to redeem themselves after their last three contest, all losses along their West Coast road trip. With Jimmy Butler going down early in the Los Angeles Lakers game, he was questionable heading into Saturday’s contest against the Jazz.
Without him in the lineup, it was certain to be a tough contest for the Miami Heat. Well, that’s until it wasn’t.
Winning every period through three of them, the Miami Heat found themselves up 95-69 heading into the fourth period. That’s when it happened though.
As they had in a game in Miami a week ago from Saturday’s contest, exact, the Utah Jazz proceeded to make a comeback attempt. Outscoring the Miami Heat, 36-16, in the fourth period, the Heat would go nearly four and half minutes without a score in the quarter.
The Miami Heat came into Saturday’s game needing a win after dropping three straight. They got it, but not before the Jazz almost played spoilers… again.
After a pair of Kyle Lowry free throws at around 4:31 and with the score being 109-87 at that point, the Heat wouldn’t score another point until the 10 second mark of the game, when Tyler Herro would sink a pair of free throws to make the score 111-105.
That would go on to be the final score and though it wasn’t pretty, you take the win. Like the repetition of the Jazz and the overall comeback attempt, it, again, almost spoiled what seemed liked something special for the Miami Heat.
Last Saturday’s moment was a Kyle Lowry triple-double. This Saturday’s moment, though, was the potential return of Duncan Robinson.
Struggling mightily coming into this contest, Duncan had his best shooting game of the season. Going 8-14 from the floor and 6-11 from range, with four rebounds and assists a piece, he would finish with 22 points on the evening.
Hopefully, this is the beginning of him breaking out of his slump, as the Heat have been waiting on it and it takes them that much higher up as a team. It was another good win for a Miami Heat team that needed one.
They have their last game of the road trip on Monday in Oklahoma City against the Thunder. Though only 5-6 on the season, they can pose a challenge, so the Heat need to be ready.