|
 Guard Dwyane Wade finished with 20 points for the Heat, who trailed
by as many as 21 points early in the third period and erased a
19-point halftime deficit, outscoring the Rockets 31-12 in the third
quarter.
Guard Gerald Green's three-pointer with 54 seconds remaining in the
period tied it at 75-75.
Scoreless through the first three periods, forward Chris Bosh gave
Miami its first lead 85-83 on a three-pointer with 8:11 remaining in
the fourth quarter.
Bosh's conversion from behind the arc was part of a 17-0 run that
ended on Whiteside's dunk with 3:44 left for a 97-85 Miami lead.
Bosh finished with 10 points.
Forward Luol Deng scored 14 points and forward Justise Winslow and
guard Tyler Johnson were Miami's other double-digit scorers with 11
and 10 points, respectively. Whiteside, a center, also had 15
rebounds.
Houston was held without a field goal for a 9:02 stretch in the
fourth quarter. The loss was the Rockets' third straight by 20
points.
Guard Marcus Thornton scored 21 points to lead Houston, and guard
James Harden finished with 16 points but was held to two points in
the second half.
The Rockets played without center Dwight Howard, who sat out because
of a sore back. Behind Thornton's 19 first-half points, Houston
built an early double-digit lead.
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Thornton hit five of six three-pointers as the Rockets converted on
9-of-20 from beyond the arc in the first two periods.
Thornton's fifth three-pointer with 49 seconds remaining gave
Houston its biggest lead of the first half at 63-42.
The Heat missed their first 10 three-point attempts and Bosh missed
his first six shots.
In the first quarter, Miami rallied from a nine-point deficit to cut
Houston's lead to 35-30 at the end of the period.
Consecutive three-pointers from guard Patrick Beverly and guard
Jason Terry negated the early Miami comeback and helped Houston open
the second quarter with 10 unanswered points.
(Editing by Sudipto Ganguly)
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