Heat escapes with road victory over Wizards for second straight win. Takeaways and details

After enduring a long losing streak for much of the last two weeks, the Miami Heat is now in the middle of a winning streak.

The Heat (26-23) strung together its second straight win, escaping with a 110-102 win over the struggling Washington Wizards (9-39) on Friday night at Capital One Arena.

This short two-game winning streak comes after the Heat snapped a seven-game skid with a home win over the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday.

“I would like to think that we are doing some things better,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the win over the Wizards. “Certainly defensively now two games in a row, we’ve been able to show more of our identity, more efforts.”

Friday’s win wasn’t the prettiest, but the Heat overcame an 11-point first-half deficit to earn the eight-point victory.

The Heat did it with a dominant third quarter, winning the period 31-15 to turn a three-point halftime deficit into a 13-point lead entering the fourth quarter.

“The third quarter, we were able to put both sides of the floor together,” Spoelstra said. “That was probably our best stretch.”

It appeared that the Heat was on its way to a double-digit victory, ahead by 13 points with 3:08 to play.

But the Wizards made a late 12-3 run to cut the deficit to four with 31.1 seconds remaining. Washington could have made it a one possession game, but Wizards guard Jordan Poole made only one of two free throws to cut the deficit to four instead of three with 31.1 seconds left.

That’s the closest the Wizards got, as Terry Rozier made two free throws to push the Heat’s lead up to six after Washington committed the intentional foul to preserve the clock with 30.5 seconds to play.

In the end, the third quarter was the only quarter the Heat won on Friday against the team with the NBA’s second-worst record. That proved to be enough.

“That we guarded, that we made shots,” Heat star Jimmy Butler said when asked for what he liked from the third quarter. “It looked very easy because we were out there playing together on both sides of the ball.”

Butler led the way for the Heat, finishing with 24 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and 9-of-13 shooting from the foul line, nine rebounds, three assists and one steal.

Heat center Bam Adebayo added 20 points and 14 rebounds for his 26th double-double of the season.

For the Wizards, Corey Kispert set a new season-high with 26 points on 6-of-14 shooting on threes. But Washington shot just 11 of 42 (26.2 percent) on threes as a team.

The Heat won despite shooting just 7 of 31 (22.6 percent) from three-point range behind a 27-17 advantage on the foul line and 14-6 advantage on the offensive glass. Those offensive rebounds helped the Heat outscore the Wizards 19-7 in second-chance points.

“We knew we needed to get on the glass,” Heat veteran Kevin Love said. “That was one of the things that coach emphasized this morning. He spoke about how we have a very high win percentage when we win the glass.”

The Heat now returns to Miami to begin a four-game homestand on Sunday against the Los Angeles Clippers.

Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Wizards on Friday:

Butler continued his best stretch of the season for the Heat.

The first half of the season was not up to Butler’s All-NBA standards. He missed 15 of Heat’s first 39 games, wasn’t selected as an NBA All-Star and his production has been down across the board from last regular season.

But Butler has turned his game up a notch recently, turning in his fourth straight excellent performance on Friday.

Butler was assertive from the start, totaling 19 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field and 6-of-6 shooting from the foul line in the first half. It marked his highest-scoring first half of the season.

Butler scored five points on 1-of-3 shooting from the field and 3-of-7 shooting at the foul line in the second half.

Butler has now scored more than 20 points in four straight games. It marks the first time he has done that this season.

“He’s the guy that when you establish early, he’s always going to make the right play and he’s going to be incredibly efficient,” Love said of Butler. “And he’s done it his whole career.”

Over those four games, Butler is averaging 27.3 points, eight rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.5 steals per game while shooting an ultra efficient 62.5 percent from the field, 6 of 9 (66.7 percent) on threes. His aggressiveness has also generated 10.3 free-throw attempts per game during this stretch.

The Heat turned to zone for much of the second half and it worked to slow the Wizards’ offense.

The Heat’s man-to-man defense was shaky to start, allowing the Wizards to total 59 points on 45.5 percent shooting from the field and 8-of-23 (34.8 percent) shooting on threes in the first half.

But the Heat turned to zone for a large chunk of the second half for the second straight game, and it worked.

The Wizards, which entered with the NBA’s 25th-ranked offensive rating for the season, were limited to 43 points in the second half.

After using its zone defense for just four half-court defensive possessions in Friday’s first half, the Heat went to zone for 24 possessions in the second half. The Heat held the Wizards to just 0.68 points per possession when in its zone defense, compared to 1.02 points per possession when using its man scheme during the win.

“We were able to extend it full court a little bit more and take them a little bit out of their normal attacks and three-point shooting,” Spoelstra said when asked about the effectiveness of the Heat’s zone defense against the Wizards.

The Heat used the same starting group on Friday for the fifth straight game and Rozier’s shooting struggles continued.

The Heat again opened with a lineup of Rozier, Tyler Herro, Butler, Haywood Highsmith and Adebayo.

In the unit’s first four starts, this group was outscored by 5.9 points per 100 possessions in 48 minutes together.

On Friday, the Heat’s starting lineup began the game on a 13-12 run before the team made its first substitution of the night.

To begin the second half, the Heat’s starting group was outscored 9-8 before the team turned to its bench.

In the end, the Heat’s starting lineup was outscored by one point in 11 minutes together during Friday’s win.

It didn’t help that Rozier continued to struggle to make shots, closing Friday’s win with 15 points on 2-of-13 shooting from the field and 0-of-6 shooting on threes. But he did go 11 of 11 from the foul line, while also finishing with eight rebounds and five assists in 30 minutes.

In his first six games with the Heat since last week’s trade, Rozier is shooting 30.9 percent from the field and 7 of 27 (25.9 percent) on threes.

Love put together one of his best performances of the season to lead the Heat’s bench unit.

With reserve Duncan Robinson missing his second straight game while in concussion protocol, the Heat again went with a bench rotation of Jaime Jaquez Jr., Love, Caleb Martin and Josh Richardson against the Wizards.

Love, 35, contributed quality minutes in his usual backup center role, finishing with 13 points and 10 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season and his first double-double since Jan. 3.

Love’s best stretch of the night came in the third quarter, when he totaled seven points and three rebounds while playing the final 6:17 of the period to help spark a 23-6 run to turn a four-point deficit into a 13-point lead at the end of the quarter.

“K-Love really stepped up in that third quarter, making plays, getting shots, rebounding and really just his energy was really felt in that third quarter,” Herro said. “I think he ignited our group.”

The Heat outscored the Wizards by 16 points in the 15 minutes that Love played on Friday.

The Heat now returns home for an extended stretch.

Up next for the Heat is a four-game homestand that includes games against the Clippers on Sunday, Orlando Magic on Tuesday, San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday and Feb. 11 against the Boston Celtics. Thursday’s NBA trading deadline will also pass during this stretch.

This string of four straight games in Miami is tied for the Heat’s longest homestand of the season. This is one of four four-game homestands on the Heat’s schedule.

But it won’t be easy, as three of the four opponents during the upcoming homestand hold winning records.

“I know our guys are looking forward to the competition,” Spoelstra said. “The Clippers, I think, are the hottest team in the league right now.”

The Heat is just 6-15 this season in games against teams that entered Friday with a winning record.