Heat 104, Clippers 90
Heat 104, Clippers 90: Chris Bosh matched his season high with 34 points as visiting Miami bounced back from a slow start to beat Los Angeles.
Bosh’s backup, Hassan Whiteside, posted career highs of 23 points and 16 rebounds for the Heat, who had lost five of six coming into the game. Dwyane Wade contributed 17 points and 10 assists for Miami.
Blake Griffin scored 26 points and Chris Paul finished with 23 and nine assists for the Clippers, who ended their nine-game homestand with a 6-3 mark. J.J. Redick added 14 points but third-leading scorer Jamal Crawford was held to four points on 1-for-9 shooting as the bench for Los Angeles was outscored 37-15.
The Clippers got off to a hot start, making eight of their first 11 shots and building a 19-6 lead with Paul scoring 10 points in the run, but they went silent as the Heat unleashed a 13-0 burst to knot the score at 19, and they continued to roll. Miami scored the first eight points of the second quarter to go up by nine and led by as many as 12 in the quarter before Redick’s 3 in the final second cut the deficit back to 62-53 at the break.
The Clippers managed to trim the deficit to six on three occasions early in the second half but an 11-2 run put Miami on top by 15 and the Heat maintained a 10-point edge heading into the fourth. Miami didn’t score in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter but Los Angeles didn’t take advantage, only getting within eight before the Heat stretched the lead back to 13 with 6:37 remaining.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Whiteside, a second-round pick of the Sacramento Kings in 2010, was playing in his 20th NBA game after spending most of the last five seasons in the D-League. … Clippers C DeAndre Jordan, who came in leading the league in rebounding at 13.7, picked up two fouls in the first seven minutes and never got untracked against Bosh and Whiteside, finishing with six rebounds in 33 minutes. … The Heat improved to 16-0 all-time when Bosh scores at least 30 points.