Heat hold off Kings
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Tyler Johnson capped a 23-point night with a driving layup that he made despite the foul, breaking a tie and helping the Miami Heat hold off a furious Sacramento Kings rally in a 107-102 victory at the Golden 1 Center on Wednesday.
Johnson nearly lost the ball twice while dribbling on the decisive possession, once the ball was knocked away and once when he dribbled off his knee. But he recovered, drove the key and converted despite being hammered by the Kings' Matt Barnes and breaking 102-102 tie. Johnson then made the free throw for a 3-point lead, and Miami held on.
Goran Dragic added 19 points for Miami (11-26), which ended a six-game losing streak despite blowing a 19-point third-quarter lead and playing without usual starters Hassan Whiteside and Justise Winslow.
Ty Lawson and Garrett Temple each scored 15 points off the bench for the Kings (15-20), but leading scorer DeMarcus Cousins scored a season-low 13 on 4-for-15 shooting. Sacramento opened a season-high seven-game homestand by losing for the third time in four games.
Arron Afflalo also scored 15 points for Sacramento. Barnes added 12 and Darren Collison had 10. But the Kings allowed Miami to shoot 59 percent from the field in the first half.
By late in the third quarter, they trailed 87-68. But the Kings erased that by scoring 19 straight points bridging the third and fourth quarters and eventually extended that run to 25-4 and led 93-91 with under three minutes left.
But Johnson made two 3-points, the first put Miami back ahead 94-93, and the second gave the Head a 102-97 lead.
Two misses by Cousins at the other end, one a layup and one a 3-pointer, cemented the result.
The victory made it a bit of a better night for Miami, which was rocked by more injury news just as they received reinforcements. The team announced before the game that rookie Justise Winslow will have surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder and likely will miss the rest of the season.
The second-year small forward played 34 minutes per game and was averaging 10.9 points. He played only 18 games. He was injured after becoming entangled with Boston Celtics center Al Horford on Dec. 30. The injury came only nine games into Winslow's return from a sore left wrist that kept him out 16 games earlier this season.
That news nullified guard Dion Waiters' return from a 20-game absence caused by torn muscle in his thigh. Waiters scored four points in 10 minutes.
NOTES: Kings coach Dave Joerger told reporters recently that he wants to give more playing time to rookie G Malachi Richardson, but he didn't get off the bench in Tuesday's victory at Denver. Richardson has played in five games this season, and fellow rookie C Georgios Papagiannis has played just two for Sacramento. ... C Willie Reed's 22-point, 16-rebound game at Phoenix on Tuesday was one of the best ever by a Heat rookie. The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reported that Reed joined teammate F Hassan Whiteside and former Miami F Kurt Thomas as the only players in franchise history with a 20-15 double-double within their first 57 games. ... Sacramento F Rudy Gay (hip flexor) has played in only one game since Dec. 12. ... Miami has used 15 starting lineups this season, the second most in the NBA. Only the New Orleans Pelicans (16) have resorted to more. The Heat also have played back-to-back games eight times already this season.