Balanced Heat roll past Wizards
Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo, front left, gets a rebound over Washington Wizards’ Marcin Gortat (13) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Saturday, March 10, 2018, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
MIAMI — James Johnson scored 20 points, Wayne Ellington added 17 and the Miami Heat ran away in the third quarter to beat the Washington Wizards 129-102 on Saturday night.
Tyler Johnson, Josh Richardson, Rodney McGruder and Kelly Olynyk all scored 13 for the Heat, who never trailed and outscored Washington 43-28 in the third. That was Miami’s highest-scoring quarter in a regular-season contest since Oct. 30, 2013 — 394 games ago.
Dwyane Wade got the 8,000th field goal of his career in the first half, but left less than a minute into the fourth quarter with what was diagnosed as a mild left hamstring strain. The Heat have a six-hour flight to Portland on Sunday, in advance of a game there Monday.
Jodie Meeks scored 23 for the Wizards, whose five-game winning streak was snapped. Bradley Beal scored 14 for Washington, which was outscored 76-42 in the paint — even on a night where Heat center Hassan Whiteside couldn’t play because of hip pain and his replacement, Bam Adebayo, was limited with foul trouble.
Washington was within 46-44 with 3:51 left in the second quarter, and from there it was all Heat. Over the next 16 minutes, Miami outscored the Wizards 71-35.
It was Miami’s 11th consecutive game scoring at least 100 points, tying the third-longest such streak in team history.
Miami (36-31) carved out a split of the four-game season series with Washington, plus got within two games of the Wizards (38-29) in the Eastern Conference playoff race. A loss on Saturday and the Heat chances of catching the Wizards would have taken a serious hit — since they would have been four games down and with no hope of winning a tiebreaker.
TIP-INS
Wizards: Washington plays only three games in the next 10 days, and two of those are on a back-to-back. … The Wizards waved the white flag in the third, and both benches were emptied for the fourth. … Washington was bidding for only the fifth winning streak of longer than five games in franchise history. The team mark is eight in a row, set back in 1978.
Heat: Richardson now has 890 points this season, which is 10 more than he had in his first two seasons combined. … Miami’s only longer streaks of scoring 100 points were a 14-game run in 1994, and a 12-game streak last season. The Heat also had an 11-game streak in 2016. … The Heat were averaging 100.4 points before Wade returned. In his 12 games back, they’ve averaged 111.5 per game.
WINSLOW BOTHERED
Heat forward Justise Winslow walked off the floor and went right to the locker room before the final horn, even though the clock was running and he was still in the game. Winslow was shaken up on a play in the final minute, then came to the scorer’s table and knocked off a phone and some other items in a clear show of frustration.
GRINDING
Washington is now eight games through a stretch of 13 consecutive games against teams with winning records — all without All-Star guard John Wall. The Wizards are now 4-4 in those games, and won’t face a sub-.500 team again until hosting New York on March 25.
UP NEXT
Wizards: Host Minnesota on Tuesday.
Heat: Visit Portland on Monday.
