Heat Hold Off Blazers’ Comeback, 115-109

The Miami Heat continued their extensive west coast road trip on Wednesday, January 5. The Heat rolled into Portland for their first of two matchups of the season with the Trail Blazers. Miami welcomed back familiar faces off of the injury report, including Max Strus and Duncan Robinson. Although Jimmy Butler rode the sidelines against Portland, the Heat hope that he can return to action later in the week.

Recap

Despite missing their best two players, Miami took advantage of a Portland team that was also missing their two best prospects. The Blazers’ Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum were sidelined as well as the Heat’s Butler and Bam Adebayo. The first half ended with the Heat up 11; it also ended with Kyle Lowry getting ejected with his second technical foul. Sparked by Anfernee Simons, the Blazers came roaring back in the third quarter. Ultimately, the Heat held on in the fourth quarter; Miami won the contest, 115-109.

With Butler and Adebayo unavailable and Lowry ejected, the Heat found a balanced scoring array from its remaining healthy players. Strus led the team in scoring at 25 points and connected on seven of Miami’s 19 made triples. Omer Yurtseven continued his impressive string of spot-starts. Yurt grabbed 16 rebounds, sank a three-pointer, and delivered 14 points in a clutch Heat win.

For the Blazers, it was the Simons and Norman Powell show. With their two primary shot-takers out, these two combined for a whopping 35 shot attempts, which featured 17 threes attempted. In the end, they added up to 54 of the Blazers’ 109 points and attempted nearly half of their total shots on the night. Lillard and McCollum expect to miss more time, so, in turn, one can expect the duo of Simons and Powell to continue their hot stretch of scoring.

Up Next

The Heat will travel to Phoenix to battle the West-leading Suns on Saturday, January 8. While it is not the last game of the road trip, it is the final contest on the West Coast for Miami in the 2021-22 season.

(Featured image by Troy Wayrynen-USA TODAY Sports)