Heat Look To Keep Rolling As Phoenix Comes To Town
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MIAMI (CBSMiami/SportsDirect) – The Miami Heat have been playing some good basketball of late, despite losing Chris Bosh to injury.
Joe Johnson has played two games in a Heat uniform and already looks like a perfect fit.
The Heat will try to follow up the best shooting night in franchise history and run their winning streak to three straight when they host the lowly Phoenix Suns on Thursday.
Johnson is 2-0 since joining Miami after agreeing to a buyout with the Brooklyn Nets and went 10-of-13 from the floor on Tuesday as part of a franchise-record 67.5-percent effort in a 129-111 shellacking of the Chicago Bulls.
All eight players who saw the court for the Heat shot better than 50 percent from the field as the team held onto fourth place in the Eastern Conference.
Miami could be in for another brilliant offensive night against the Suns, who were run off the floor in a 126-92 loss at Charlotte on Tuesday.
Phoenix has lost 29 of its last 32 games and has not won on the road since Dec. 7.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, FSN Arizona (Phoenix), FSN Sun (Miami)
ABOUT THE SUNS (15-45): Phoenix earned a rare win on Saturday 111-106 in part by overwhelming the Memphis Grizzlies on the interior by starting centers Alex Len and Tyson Chandler together.
The Suns tried to ride that tactic to back-to-back wins but ended up getting outrebounded (65-52) and outscored in the paint (48-42) while managing to get torched on the perimeter as well.
Starting guards Ronnie Price and Devin Booker and small forward P.J. Tucker combined to go 7-of-32 from the floor, including 1-of-12 from 3-point range in the loss to the Hornets.
ABOUT THE HEAT (34-26): Even Miami's players had no explanation for becoming the second team since 1998 to shoot 67.5 percent or better from the floor.
"I don't know what to say. We moved the ball," forward Luol Deng, who went 8-of-10 from the floor, told reporters. "I saw we only made six threes. It's kind of impressive to score 129 with only making six threes. Joe (Johnson) just did a great job of just fitting right in — and we're getting our rotation down."
That rotation includes bringing center Hassan Whiteside off the bench, and he scored a career-high 26 points in his sixth straight double-double on Tuesday.
BUZZER BEATERS
- The Heat have taken 11 straight in the series, including a 103-95 win at the Suns on Jan. 8.
- Miami PF Amar'e Stoudemire blocked five shots in 15 minutes on Tuesday.
- Phoenix PF Mirza Teletovic has hit at least three 3-pointers in each of the last six games.
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