Harden’s 26 points lead Rockets over Heat 115-102

Sunday’s 105-87 win over Atlanta, the fifth straight game they played with Amar’e Stoudemire filling at center for Whiteside, helped the Heat pass the Hawks by a half-game for first place in the Southeast Division. Rookie forward Justise Winslow, making his professional debut in his hometown, had 11 points, eight boards and three steals as Miami had its four-game winning streak snapped.

Would you believe the Houston Rockets, without Dwight Howard and Clint Capela, had one of their best wins of the season against an Eastern Conference playoff team? They’ve been constantly hovering in and out of the top five in terms of defensive efficiency all season long now holding opponents to 99.8 points per 100 possessions according to Teamrankings.com.

This will be the second time these two teams face off, with the Heat walking away with a 109-89 home victory the first time around; in the third game of Miami’s 2015-16 season, big man Hassan Whiteside finished with 25 points and 15 rebounds, while Dwyane Wade totaled 20 points and 8 assists.

Griffin broke his shooting hand in the January 23 incident in Toronto between Matias Testi and himself.

“When your back is against the wall, you never know how strong you are until you got to get to that point”, Beverley said. “And that’s the first time we’ve seen something like that”.

“They sped us up with some of their small lineups”, Wade said. Guards Dwyane Wade and Goran Dragic had 16 and 14 points, respectively. “We felt like we haven’t gotten a fair whistle, but we just got to move forward and focus on having a must-win game on Tuesday”.

While that thinking does have some merit the overall situation between the Heat and Whiteside is more complicated than it appears.

There was stint early in the season where I firmly believed that Miami was the second best team in the East and had a plausible chance at competing against Lebron James and the Cavaliers.

That included four three-pointers from Marcus Thornton, who has torched the Heat twice after Miami chose not to sign him this offseason. “I love playing with James”. I came here growing up to see a bunch of Rockets games.

– Fined $10,000 by the National Basketball Association earlier in the day for his comments about how Dwight Howard has been officiated, Rockets coach J.B. Bickerstaff said before the game, “It is what it is”. Teammate Damian Lillard had 14 points and 12 assists for his 11th double-double of the season.

Harden scored a game-high 26 points, but it was his 14 assists that were particularly noteworthy.