The Miami Heat are continuing to streak as they get set for their second road game in the LA area on Wednesday. Beating the Clippers of Los Angeles on Monday to take that current winning streak to two though, the Miami Heat would have to give multiple efforts to get it done.
In fact, some might say that they had to beat the Clippers twice to get one win on Monday. Here’s what that means.
Coming out in the first half to dominate the Los Angeles side, the Miami Heat looked as fluid, connected, and Miami Heat-like as they have all year long. They played for one another, for the best possible outcome on offense, and on both sides of the ball on a rope.
Getting out to a, 67-49, lead at the half, the Heat all but had this game in the bag, right? I mean, they had just played their best half of the season according to many.
End to end, that was Miami best half of the season. Applying a ton of pressure to the Clippers.
— Couper Moorhead (@CoupNBA) January 3, 2023
Wrong. The Miami Heat, as they’ve come to be known to do, came out in the third period to allow this Clippers team to get right back into the game.
The Miami Heat had to give twice the effort to beat the LA Clippers Monday night. And this was all after going up 20 points in the first half.
Losing the third quarter, 14-34, the Miami Heat would actually take a two-point deficit into the fourth. But that is where things flipped back in their favor.
Refocusing and getting key stops when they mattered the most, the Heat were able to make enough key plays and hit enough big shots to walk away with the win. And this is why they had to win it twice.
After getting out to a lead that should have been manageable throughout, they allowed this Clippers team right back in it. And because of that, they had to fight just as hard to win it as they did to gain that big lead in the first place.
All’s well that ends well though and especially when you had a guy like Bam Adebayo going off as he did. A huge reason why they won this game, he continues to show you a much more assertive side of himself.
Even on a night where the Heat gave up a big lead and where Jimmy Butler didn’t even score double-digits, the Miami Heat were still able to walk away with a win behind a huge 31 points from Bam.
The Heat will get a night off, before a rematch against the other team in LA. Hopefully, they don’t make winning that one as hard as they did on Monday.