MIAMI — Tyler Herro scored 29 points, Kyle Lowry had his 19th triple-double and the Miami Heat held off the Utah Jazz 118-115 on Saturday night.
Miami led by 19 points with 5 minutes remaining but the victory wasn’t assured until Donovan Mitchell missed a 3-pointer in the closing seconds.
“At the end of the day, I think all these experiences, particularly for a semi-new team early in the season, are really important to go through,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Late-game situations, learning how to hold onto a lead, how to play … I just think it was really important to go through that. Obviously, it’s always better if you can do that and get a win.”
Lowry finished with 20 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. Jimmy Butler scored 27 points for the Heat, making two free throws with 10.4 seconds remaining after Utah had cut it to 116-115.
“We’ve got to continue to finish games and the way we finished that game wasn’t very good,” Lowry said. “We’ve got to continue to get better. That’s just what we have to do.”
Mitchell then missed his 3-point attempt, with Lowry grabbing the rebound and released a pass downcourt to Butler.
The Heat bounced back from a 17-point home loss against Boston on Thursday. Lowry also sprained his left ankle in the defeat.
“It’s a long season,” Lowry said. “One game is one game. It’s not going to make or break us. All we can do is continue to get better every single night.”
The Jazz rallied and got it to 115-113 on Mike Conley‘s corner 3-pointer with 18 remaining.
Herro split two free throws with 17 seconds left to put Miami ahead 116-113 before Rudy Gobert cut the deficit with his dunk six seconds later.
Mitchell finished with 37 points, Conley added 18 and Royce O'Neale scored 15 points and had a career high six steals. Mitchell sat out Thursday’s game in Atlanta because of a sprained right ankle.
“The biggest thing is we were able to do it when it counted,” Mitchell said of the Jazz’s late rally. “Now we have to do it for 48 minutes.”
Herro shot 6 of 8 on 3-pointers and had his 25th game with 20 points or more off the bench. He and Goran Dragic were tied for the team’s all-time lead.
“You want to be in those final minutes, being able to help the team try to get a win every single night,” Herro said.
Tied at 74, the Heat took the lead for good after a 13-4 spurt in the final 2:35 of the third period. Herro and Lowry hit 3-pointers to key Miami’s surge.
“They executed well and made a lot of shots and they do that because they have a good team and a great coach,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “For us, these types of games you hopefully learn about yourself and how to play, and how to play against a certain style.”
Lowry’s jumper capped a 12-0 run early in the second quarter that gave the Heat their first double-digit lead at 43-32. Three-pointers from O’Neale and Bojan Bogdanovic helped the Jazz outscore Miami 12-6 in the final 3:35 of the period and get within 55-52 at halftime.
Duncan Robinson‘s only 3-pointer in the first quarter gave him at least one made from beyond the arc in 57 consecutive games, tying his own Miami franchise record previously set in the 2019-20 season.
