The Heat trailed by as many as 17 points in the first half but ended up winning by 22. LeBron James had 33 points, including 17 in the third quarter but the feel-good story of the night revolved around Mike Miller, who made his season debut scoring 18 points on 6 of 6 from three-point range.
Of note:
--The Heat is 4-0 without Dwyane Wade.
--The Heat scored 39 points in the third quarter, which was the second highest scoring quarter for any team in the NBA this season.
--Seventy-one points in the second half was a season high.
--Second time this season the Heat has rallied from at least a 14-point deficit at halftime.
--The Heat shot 68.3 percent in the second half, a season high, after allowing a season-high 63 points in the first half.
--The original plan was for Miller to only play five minutes. He ended up playing more than 15.
"I'm so out of shape right now," Miller said. "That's what's tough, my conditioning. But it will come."
--Miller went down in pain late in the fourth quarter holding his side. It was a scary moment but Miller said he's fine. Miller said "a dumb defensive play" aggravated his surgically repaired hernia.
"I got caught up in the air," Miller said. "You know, it's going to hurt. Obviously, it's where I had the surgery. So, one good thing about this game is I took every shot I needed to take to see where I'm at and I'm still standing, so that's the most important thing."
--Miller said he's just going to have to fight through the pain for "four or five weeks."
"My main concern was if it was going to tear again and they said the likelihood of that was slim, so I'm going to continue to battle."
--Miller joked about his bad luck over the past year.
"Like I told them, I'm not going to tell them anymore injuries. I'm not going to do another X-ray, because anything to do with an X-ray is bad news. So, they know my stance right now and I'm just going to continue to play."
--Chris Bosh scored 30 points, showing increased aggression around the basket. Bosh's highlight was a spin move around Tiago Splitter in the lane followed by a powerful one-handed dunk.
"I should be like that every game," Bosh said. "Just another shot at it. Good things happen when you're aggressive and when I'm aggressive I don't think. I think less and that's always better. Always better not to think so much and just go out and play. If they give me the shot, I'll take the shot. If I need to drive, I'll just drive."
Game higlights from NBA.com below:
-joe
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