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 They did it again on Tuesday night, blowing most of a 22-point,
second-half lead but finishing with a 17-6 run in the final 5 1/2
minutes -- with nine points coming from reserve center Hassan
Whiteside -- to beat the short-handed New Orleans Pelicans 113-99 at
the Smoothie King Center.
Dwyane Wade led the Heat with a game-high 25 points, but it was
Whiteside who pounded the Pelicans (26-44) inside, scoring 24
points, grabbing 14 rebounds and blocking three shots. Whiteside
made 10 of 11 field-goal attempts.
"He's developed his overall game," said Wade, who had to return to
the game with 7:13 left when New Orleans cut the Miami lead deficit
to 11 points and, eventually, to 96-91. "We love to put him in
pick-and-rolls. He's developed that pick-and-pop a little bit. There
are other times when he ducks in and we're able to get him the ball
in his sweet spot on the post. He was the biggest guy out there."
The Pelicans were so shorthanded -- playing without forwards Anthony
Davis and Ryan Anderson and guards Eric Gordon and Norris Cole --
that they decided to switch to a zone in the fourth quarter. The
strategy helped them close an 86-73 deficit at the start of the
fourth quarter to 96-91 with 6:13 left.
 Alonzo Gee capped the Pelicans' 13-point surge by slamming home a
dunk and making a free throw. But Hassan scored nine of Miami's
final 17 points, starting with a layup off a feed from Wade and a
foul shot. Whiteside followed up by hitting a short jumper in the
lane, a pair of free throws and a 16-foot jumper.
"They went to a zone and we had to adjust," Whiteside said. "I got a
couple of touch shots in there and I was really hurting them on the
rebounding. It's really hard to rebound in a zone, and they had to
switch back to man to man."
Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said Whiteside make a "handful" of great
defensive plays down the stretch, indicating how much he has
improved over the last three seasons.
"You saw him challenging in the last five minutes of the fourth
quarter basically everything at the rim," Spoelstra said. "You can't
just play the rim, and he's taken steps forward with that."
The Heat shot 50 percent from the field after having shot 54.8
percent in a 122-101 victory over Cleveland on Saturday. Amare
Stoudemire also had 16 points for the Heat.
The Pelicans were led by Jrue Holiday with 24 points and Luke
Babbitt with 23.
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The Heat also played excellent defense on the perimeter, holding the
Pelicans starting backcourt of Holiday and Toney Douglas to 11 of 39
shooting. The Pelicans shot just 39 percent overall.
"I don't know if we ran out of gas," said New Orleans coach Alvin
Gentry. "We were playing against a really great basketball team, and
you know they've got a rim protector. When they needed to close out
the game, they gave the ball to Dwyane Wade."
Babbitt said he and Holiday tried to create offense for the Pelicans
in the absence of so many injured teammates.
"All of us who were out there had to be aggressive," Babbitt said.
We have to just play hard, try to be aggressive and try to get
wins."
NOTES: Pelicans F Ryan Anderson sat out his second consecutive game
with a double groin injury, and coach Alvin Gentry refused to rule
out whether one of the NBA's top bench scorers (17.0 points per
game) would miss the rest of the season. "We don't know yet," Gentry
said. "That's the thing we're still trying to figure out. The
doctors are trying to determine exactly how long that will be." ...
Gentry said the Heat are playing great basketball: "As a matter of
fact, they're one of the best teams since the All-Star break."
Entering Tuesday night's game, the Heat were 11-5 since the break.
... The Heat averaged 113.4 points in their previous 10 games. "I
like the energy, I like the engine," Miami coach Erik Spoelstra
said. "I like how our guys are bringing energy off the ball. We say
it all the time -- the ball will find energy."
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