The Miami HEAT fell to the Utah Jazz 98-83 Saturday night at Vivint Smart Home Arena. Chris Bosh led the way for the HEAT with 24 points.
1. Bosh Gets Hot in the Third
With Goran Dragic in some foul trouble and Dwyane Wade in the locker room due to an injury, Bosh turned things up in the third quarter. He took advantage of his matchup with Jeff Withey and scored 11 of his 24 points in the third, including a stretch of 11 straight points that lasted until the beginning of the fourth. Bosh mixed up his approach with mid-range jumpers and aggressive drives to the rack against Utah. On the flip side of the ball, Bosh provided very good help-side defense against Gordon Hayward in the third. In all, the 31-year-old shot a very efficient 11-of-16 from the field and also grabbed seven boards.
2. Hassan Whiteside Fights Hard
While this was Whiteside’s first ever matchup against Rudy Gobert, he did the majority of his damage against Withey in the post. Overall, Whiteside fought hard on the offensive glass and gave the HEAT some second-chance opportunities. Outside of a few dunks thanks to some nice feeds from Bosh and Wade, Whiteside also had two crafty tip-ins.
3. Dragic Keeps it Up
After a fantastic outing against the Suns, Dragic picked up right where he left off. The Slovenian kicked off the game with a few jumpers and also drilled two 3-pointers in the first half. While he continued to do very well from the perimeter, he got back to what he does best on a nice play in the first quarter.
With 3:48 to go in the first, Dragic anticipated the pass from Raul Neto and got in Trevor Booker’s way to tip the ball. From there, he chased after it, gained possession and took it all the way for the transition bucket.
As mentioned before, Dragic got into foul trouble in the second half and missed a good portion of the third quarter. Still, the point guard tallied 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting on Saturday night.
Other Takeaways:
-While the HEAT fell short, Gerald Green provided a scoring punch off the bench. He used the shot-fake to drive to the hoop and convert mid-range jumpers. Late in the game as Miami was trying to mount a comeback, he got a tough put-back finish to fall after a few misses by the HEAT. In all, Green shot 6-of-13 for 13 points and grabbed six rebounds.
Game Notes:
-Wade exited the game in the third quarter with a shoulder strain, but returned in the fourth.
-Josh McRoberts (knee) and Tyler Johnson (shoulder) sat out. Josh Richardson and Jarnell Stokes (assigned to Sioux Falls) were inactive.