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Heat shows fight to earn gutsy win over Rockets, reaches 30-game mark at 16-14. Takeaways

Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro (14) handles the ball against Houston Rockets guard Amen Thompson (1) during the fourth quarter at Toyota Center.

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 104-100 win over the Houston Rockets on Sunday night at Toyota Center to close its three-game trip at 2-1 and reach the 30-game mark at 16-14. The Heat now returns to Miami to begin a three-game homestand on Wednesday against the New Orleans Pelicans:

The Heat, short-handed and playing on the second night of a back-to-back, earned a gutsy road win over a quality Rockets team behind another excellent performance from Tyler Herro. But the game ended with an unfortunate moment for both teams.

The Heat and Rockets went back and forth in a first half that included seven lead changes and five ties before Miami entered halftime with a narrow 53-50 lead.

The second half was also a battle, even after the Rockets opened the third quarter on a 23-8 run to turn a three-point deficit into a 12-point lead midway through the period.

That’s because the Heat responded with a run of its own, closing the third quarter on a 20-9 spurt to trim the deficit to one by the end of the period.

That set up for a tight and feisty finish, with the game decided in the final seconds.

The Rockets (21-11) led by one with 2:47 to play, but the Heat won the game behind a strong finish just one day after wilting at the end of Saturday’s loss to the Hawks in Atlanta.

“At the walkthrough this morning, when you’re faced with what could be, ‘Hey we had a really tough loss,’ and you come in against a team that’s second and third in the conference, back to back,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “But I could just tell by the spirit and energy of our meeting, that our guys are competitors and wanted to do whatever we had to do to put ourselves in position to get this.”

So, Herro hit a contested midrange jumper to give the Heat a one-point advantage with 1:56 left.

Then after two defensive stops, the Heat pulled ahead by four points on a clutch three-pointer from Nikola Jovic with 47.4 seconds to play.

The Rockets, which entered with the third-best record in the Western Conference, never regained their footing or composure.

Rockets guard Fred VanVleet was ejected from the game for arguing with an official after committing a five-second violation on an important side out-of-bounds situation with 47.4 seconds left.

Then with the Heat ahead by five points and with possession of the ball in the final seconds of the game, Herro and Rockets forward Amen Thompson exchanged words before Thompson grabbed Herro’s jersey and threw him down to the court.

Players and coaches from the Heat and Rockets immediately rushed over, as a brief skirmish unfolded before officials took control and separated the two teams.

After a review of the incident, six were ejected with 35.7 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

For the Heat, Terry Rozier and Herro were ejected.

For the Rockets, Jalen Green and Thompson were ejected. Rockets head coach Ime Udoka and assistant coach Ben Sullivan were also ejected.

Now, the NBA will investigate the incident to decide whether fines and/or suspensions should be handed out to those involved.

“During the dead ball, Thompson grabs the jersey and body slams Herro. Herro responds and they are both ejected for fighting fouls,” Crew Chief Marc Davis said in an NBA officiating pool report after the game when asked to explain the ejections. “Green is ejected as his actions escalated the altercation. Rozier as well is ejected as his actions were escalators to the altercation. Coach Sullivan is assessed a technical foul and ejected for his unsportsmanlike comments directed at me as I was attempting to redirect [Alperen] Sengun.”

Despite being thrown out of the game after being thrown to the court in the final seconds, Herro was the star of the night.

Herro led the Heat to the win with 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting from the field and 3-of-7 shooting from three-point range, six rebounds and nine assists.

“Just a physical game,” Herro said when asked what led to the scuffle. “I guess that’s what happens when someone is scoring, throwing dimes, doing the whole thing. I’d get mad, too.”

Heat center Bam Adebayo contributed another double-double with 12 points, 10 rebounds and three steals.

The Heat’s defense was also impressive down the stretch, limiting the Rockets to 18 points on 6-of-25 (24 percent) shooting from the field in the fourth quarter. The Heat improved to 9-0 this season when holding its opponent to 100 points or fewer.

“It’s a shame that that’ll be the discussion of this game,” Spoelstra said, referring to the late-game skirmish. “Because really it was more about the competitive character that our guys brought. And that toughness, when we were down 12, 14 in the second half, be able to just battle and stay with it, and find different ways to impact the game and then put ourselves in a position to win. The defense was outstanding.”

Adebayo added: “Those are the types of games that when you’re done after you look back and be like, ‘Man, we gutted out a win.’ We did that tonight.”

There’s a new Heat injury to monitor, but the hope is that it’s not a long-term issue.

After scoring 16 points in 38 minutes during Saturday’s loss in Atlanta, Robinson missed Sunday’s game against the Rockets because of right foot inflammation. It marked just the second game that Robinson has missed this season, as he also was unavailable for the Heat’s Nov. 2 win over the Washington Wizards in Mexico City because of personal reasons.

Robinson hurt his foot during Saturday’s loss to the Hawks, but kept playing to finish the contest. After Robinson underwent treatment on the injury Sunday, the determination was made to hold him out against the Rockets.

“I don’t have a timeline,” Spoelstra said Sunday when asked about Robinson’s status. “But he really wanted to try to go today, just didn’t really pass his protocols. So we don’t think it would be a long-term thing.”

The Heat also remained without Jimmy Butler (return to competition reconditioning), Josh Richardson (right heel inflammation) and Dru Smith (left Achilles surgery) on Sunday.

Butler, who has been at the center of trade speculation this month, missed his fifth straight game after battling a flu-like illness over the last 10 days. The Heat expects Butler to return for its next game — Wednesday against the Pelicans at Kaseya Center.

The Rockets were without two rotation players on Sunday, as Tari Eason (left leg injury management) and Jae’Sean Tate (illness) did not play against the Heat.

With Butler and Robinson out, the Heat moved Rozier and Kevin Love back into the starting lineup.

The Heat opened Sunday’s game with a lineup of Rozier, Herro, Haywood Highsmith, Love and Adebayo. It marked the fifth game that this group has started this season, but the first one since Nov. 17.

Sunday also marked Rozier’s first start since Nov. 17. Rozier opened the season in a starting role, but moved to the bench to play as a reserve in 14 straight games before the team’s injury issues pushed him back into the starting lineup on Sunday.

For Love, Sunday’s start represented his first game action of any kind since playing three minutes in the Heat’s Dec. 20 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. He had not played in four straight games — missing the first one because of personal reasons and then receiving three straight DNP-CDs (did not play, coach’s decision) with rookie Kel’el Ware taking over as the Heat’s backup center.

Rozier was strong at the start, scoring 12 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field in the first half. But he cooled off, totaling just two points on 0-of-8 shooting from the field in the second half.

Love ended the night with five points on 1-of-7 shooting from the field, six rebounds and one assist in 14 minutes.

The Rockets grabbed plenty of offensive rebounds, but it wasn’t enough to overcome their inefficient shooting.

The Rockets are the best offensive rebounding team in the NBA, entering Sunday with the league’s top offensive rebounding percentage (the percentage of available offensive rebounds a team grabs) for the season.

Early on, the Rockets’ dominance on the offensive glass was on display. Houston totaled six second-chance points on six offensive rebounds in the first quarter.

The Rockets went on to finish the game with 19 offensive rebounds.

But all those second-chance opportunities didn’t matter because the Rockets didn’t capitalize on enough of them, scoring only nine second-chance points.

That’s because the Rockets struggled to make shots for most of the night, shooting just 39.2 percent from the field and 13 of 40 (32.5 percent) on threes in the loss.

The Heat, which entered the game with the NBA’s 22nd-ranked offensive rebounding percentage this season, actually finished with more second-chance points than the Rockets. Miami totaled 15 second-chance points on 15 offensive rebounds Sunday.

“That’s a really good team we just beat,” Herro said. “They’re top two, three in the West, very good defense, they got a bunch of young athletic guys that can really play. So, that’s a good win for us.”

Jovic provided an important spark and Ware continued to contribute quality minutes off the bench for the short-handed Heat.

Jovic made his presence felt from the start, recording eight points, three rebounds and three assists in 15 first-half minutes on Sunday.

Jovic went on to match his season-high with 18 points to go with seven rebounds and six assists in 31 minutes in the win. The Heat outscored the Rockets by 18 points with Jovic on the court in the four-point win.

Ware recorded seven points, seven rebounds and two assists in 14 minutes. The Heat outscored the Rockets by five points with Ware on the court, and he now holds a plus/minus of plus 34 while playing in each of the Heat’s last five games.

Jovic and Ware were part of a four-man Heat bench rotation that also included Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Alec Burks.

The only available Heat players who did not get into Sunday’s game were Pelle Larsson, Josh Christopher, Keshad Johnson and Isaiah Stevens.