Heat build early big lead, hang on to drill Wizards

By Rich Dubroff, for NBA.com
Posted Friday January 22, 2010 11:44PM

WASHINGTON (NBA.com exclusive) -- The Miami Heat are one tough team to figure. On Tuesday night, they won by 30. On Wednesday, they were humiliated by 39. On Friday, they rebounded again to score another big win, 112-88 over the Washington Wizards.

The Heat were led by Dwyane Wade, named this week as an All-Star starter. Wade had 32 points and 10 assists in a game Miami (22-20) led nearly all the way.

Washington (14-28), which lost for the sixth time in the last eight games, led momentarily in the first quarter before being buried by a team forced to watch tape of the 104-65 rout by Charlotte again and again.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra called it "a bloodbath session," and it was meant to make his players uncomfortable.

"Tonight was about inspiring each other, inspiring your teammate with your effort, your motor, with your purity," a philosophical Spoelstra said.

He said he was eager to see how his team reacts on Saturday when they return home to face Sacramento.

Miami has lots of trouble in back-to-back games. They're just 1-6 in the second game of back-to-backs, and after the 39-point debacle, Spoelstra wants to see what he gets out of his team.

"The way we've prepared mentally and physically has not been good enough," Spoelstra said. "So, what we need going into tomorrow night is a mindset change. It has to stop -- right here and right now. We have to make a change tomorrow night."

Miami is probably sorry to see the last of the Wizards. Over the years, the Heat have handled Washington handily, winning three of four this year and is a 62-28 lifetime.

Miami had a 17-point lead after the first quarter, thanks to a 22-4 run. The selfish Wizards had just one assist in the quarter.

"We had no juice," Washington coach Flip Saunders said. "We didn't seem to have life no matter who we played."

Besides Wade, Jermaine O'Neal had 18 points and Michael Beasley had 15 points. The Heat shot 57 percent from the field and a sparkling 13-for-22 from 3-point range. The 13 3-pointers were a season-high, coming just two nights after they went 2-for-23 in the Bobcats nightmare.

"We came out with a lot of energy," Wade said.

After such a horrible game on Wednesday, how does Wade explain the bounceback two nights later?

"I can't. Every day is different," he said.

Miami built a 22-point lead midway through the second quarter, which the Wizards cut to 15 by halftime.

Even though Washington cut the lead to 61-51 early in the third quarter, the Heat put it away with a 22-6 run for an 87-53 lead late in the third quarter.

The Wizards were led by Andray Blatche with 19 points. Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison shot a combined 9-for-27. Butler had 14 points, Jamison just eight.

Jamison was held back by Beasley.

"It's kind of time. I took a stand," Beasley said.

It's the second straight subpar game for Jamison. On Wednesday, he had just seven in a one-point loss to Dallas. It was the first time all season that he'd failed to hit double figures in consecutive games.

"They came out aggressive, knocked us in the mouth and we just stood there and took it," Jamison said. "Tonight was just a tough game."

Washington is just 3-7 since the suspension of Gilbert Arenas. While they had hoped to show some improvement during their season-long six-game homestand, they're 2-2 with games against the Clippers and Lakers coming up.

"They came into our home laughing, dunking and just making it seem like we shouldn't be on the same court as them. That should touch some people. It touched me," Blatche said.

"It just made me want to play much harder than any other player on the court because when a team comes on your court laughing like they're laughing and high fiving, that's like a smack in the face. That's how I took it."

The Heat are looking forward to trying to master this back-to-back thing.

"That's one of the areas we have to improve and improve very quickly," O'Neal said. "We lost a handful of games that weren't even close. We lost some games we should have gotten."

The Heat have played reasonably well so far in 2010 -- except for those back-to-back losses.

Is there a rational explanation?

"I can't explain it. It's been happening all season," Beasley said.

• Heat: Cook, Diawara
• Wizards: Crittenton, James

• Heat: --
• Wizards: --

• Lead Changes: 2
• Times Tied: 0

• Arena: Verizon Center, Washington, DC
• Officials: #18 Mark Wunderlich, #38 Michael Smith, #62 Brian Forte
• Attendance: 20173
• Duration: 2:3