It wasn’t pretty, but the Miami Heat survived ejections from Kyle Lowry and Tyler Herro on the way to a close 115-109 road win against the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night.
Max Strus came back from a four-game absence to lead the Heat with 25 points on 9-17 shooting and 7-13 from deep as well as six rebounds and five assists. Miami’s bench contributed 44 points, twice as many as Portland’s reserves.
Though it was a crucial win in the middle of a difficult road trip and two consecutive frustrating losses, but Miami showed plenty of resolve on an emotional night that was overshadowed by Lowry’s bizarre first-half ejection and later a scuffle between Herro and Jusuf Nurkic that resulted in a double-ejection with less than a minute left in the game.