Miami are able to stop the bleeding with a big win over Washington

Coming off an 0-4 road trip, the Miami Heat and all of us watching at home were desperate for a victory. They did just that defeating the Washington Wizards 113-105 behind a season-high 28 points from Kyle Lowry.

That is the most points the guard has scored since arriving in Miami and it comes at a time when you can argue he's playing the best basketball since joining the Heat. In his last four games, Lowry has been averaging 20.5 points, 7.5 assists, 6.3 rebounds, 1.5 blocks and 1.0 steals. The team had been losing so the recognition wasn't really being given, but he has been playing his hardest out there and is giving them everything he has. His presence on the floor was the sole reason Miami took a big lead heading into the half as he had 24 of their 60 first half points. Foul trouble forced him to sit longer in the second half than Erik Spoelstra would have liked and, as expected, the offense completely stalled.

Whenever the Heat manage to build a lead, they have now made it a habit of giving them up. The same could be said in this one as they were up by as many as 21 points in the third quarter, but that lead would fall to just three points by the end of the quarter. A large part of that is due to Miami having no identity on the offensive end. For most of the game, it was Lowry bailing Miami out in the half-court or in the fast break. So, with Lowry picking up his fifth foul in the third quarter, it was hard to figure out where Miami was going to find consistent offense. Bad turnovers and poor shot selection allowed Kristaps Porzingis and the Wizards to gain momentum heading into the fourth and the Heat were hanging by a thread.

Luckily, Miami was able to find consistent offensive production from Caleb Martin when they needed it most. He finished the game with a season-high 24 points on 10-of-17 shooting to go with nine rebounds, four assists, two steals, one block and no turnovers. His improved outside shooting doesn't seem to be a fluke no matter how clunky his shooting form looks and it was starting to open up driving lanes for him in this matchup. As the season progresses teams will respect him more and it'll give the rest of the team the space it needs to operate efficiently in the half-court. This was probably Caleb's best game of the season and it couldn't have come at a more desperate time for the Heat.

We also got a little bit healthier with the return of Tyler Herro. Even though it took some time to shake off the rust, he showed up when it mattered most and scored 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting from deep, four rebounds and one assist in the fourth quarter. With Lowry playing heavy minutes and carrying the Heat all game it was a combination of Herro and Martin settling the half-court offense in the 2nd half. This being Tyler's first game back from injury I'm not going to be critical of his play. We needed another body and he is an extremely skilled one at that.

It was hard not to think the Heat were going to allow another game to slip through their fingers. They started the game playing some of the best defense I could remember, but poor execution on offense in the 2nd half was allowing the Wizards to get easy buckets in transition, which in turn gave them momentum of the game. You combined that with the Lowry foul trouble and Miami were in serious trouble heading into the fourth. Thankfully the team was able to dig deep and after allowing 37 points on 66.7% shooting in the third they held Washington to just 25 points on 45.8% shooting in the fourth. Porzingis had been the main engine of Washington's offensive resurrection, so Miami made the adjustment of forcing him into tougher looks and crowding the middle of their famous 2/3 zone. He had just two points on 1-of-4 shooting. That did, however, open things up for Kyle Kuzma, who had 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting in the quarter, but the heroics from Kyle, Caleb and Tyler led Miami to this victory.

The Bam Adebayo and Nikola Jovic experiment continues to be a success as well. Both bigs have the ability to grab the rebound and lead the fast break. A huge advantage for the Heat as some teams don't even have one. This creates a lot of mismatches on the other end and Bam was able to take advantage of it in the low post a few times. Jovic was also able to hit a three in this one and I expect that part of his game to get better and better. His 22.7% shooting from three doesn't scare me one at all. His form looks great and his quick trigger allows him to easily take shots over guards and wings. I can't wait to see Jovic in the starting lineup when this team is fully healthy because his game can help out so many players on this team.

Next up for the Miami Heat they will be taking on these same Washington Wizards at home on Friday at 8:00 PM EST. It really doesn't need to be said how important these games are with Miami sitting at 8-11. They need to string together some wins, but most importantly they need to find an identity and build on it.