Heat End Trip With Loss to Bucks

The Miami Heat finished off their road trip with a 116-108 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday.

The loss gave Miami a 1-5 record in the difficult trip and made the team 11-30 on the season overall. The Heat will head home for a homestand next week, but have not had much success in Miami either this season. When playing at American Airlines Arena, the Heat are a paltry 5-13.

This has been a tough stretch for Miami and it started before the road trip. The Heat have now lost ten of the last 11 games played and are 4-18 since December 1st. The 30 losses for Miami has it near the basement of the Eastern Conference, with only Brooklyn below the team.

The Heat showed some fire and did not quit, but the large deficit proved to be too much. Miami was down by 22 at one point, before closing the gap to only eight during the fourth quarter. The Bucks would pad the lead a little from there to finish off the win.

Hassan Whiteside was just shy of a double-double in the losing effort with his 19 points and nine rebounds. Whiteside also had two assists and a steal, while going 5-6 from the free-throw line. The center did all he could to keep Miami in the game both offenisvely and defensively.

Goran Dragic also had 19 points to go along with three boards and three assists. While Whiteside had a rare game with no blocks, Dragic had a pair of blocks himself to make up for it.

Miami's bench played a big role as usual, with Tyler Johnson leading the pack with 14 points. The Heat lack depth due to injuries on most nights, but have consistently found production from the reserves. Johnson's 14 points were part of a grand total of 34 from the bench.