In Miami, star Jimmy Butler and the Heat earned their most significant victory of the season by defeating the Utah Jazz. The team with the best record in the NBA, with a score of 124-116.
–
Butler scored 33 points, his season high, Slovenian point guard Goran Dragic tied his best of the season with 26 points to stop the Jazz (26-7), who conceded just their third loss in the last 25 games.
Center Bam Adebayo scored 19 points and captured 11 balls in the rebound fight for Miami, which has won five consecutive games, the best record of the season.
Duncan Robinson added 15 points to the Miami victory and Kendrick Nunn 12.
Canastero Donovan Mitchell scored 30 points for the Jazz, who got 17 from Croatian Bojan Bogdanovic and 15 from Frenchman Rudy Gobert. Mike Conley added 14 for Utah.
Miami outscored Utah 49-36 in rebounding and held the Jazz to 15 3-pointers of 46 attempts. The Jazz guys ended up missing their last six shots.
The close game in the first half was seen with six draws, six leadership changes and neither team led by more than six goals in that stretch.
