Florida native Brice Sensabaugh scored a career-high and game-high 34 points off the bench as the Utah Jazz snapped a five-game losing streak with a 136-100 win over the host Miami Heat on Saturday night.
John Collins added 24 points and nine rebounds for Utah, which won for just the sixth time in 19 road contests this season. Walker Kessler added 14 points and a game-high 16 rebounds.
Led by Kessler, Utah outmuscled Miami for a 57-32 advantage on the glass. The Heat faced most of their rebounding struggles in the second quarter, grabbing only one board to Utah’s 16.
Miami got embarrassed at home by a team that entered Saturday with a 7-25 record. The Heat trailed by as many as 43 in the fourth quarter.
Saturday marked Miami’s first game since suspending star forward Jimmy Butler for conduct detrimental to the team. Butler, who will be held out for seven games, has asked to be traded.
With Butler out, Miami was led by Nikola Jovic (17 points). Duncan Robinson (16 points) and Tyler Herro (15 points) also led the way offensively as Miami completed a 1-2 homestand.
The Heat will now head West for a six-game road trip.
The teams played to a 22-22 standoff in the first quarter, as neither squad shot over 36 percent from the field.
But Utah started the second quarter on a 13-2 run, and the Jazz kept rolling, taking a 62-41 lead into halftime.
Alec Burks got Miami’s only rebound of the second quarter. The Heat also went just 1-for-12 from deep in the period. Meanwhile, the Jazz rarely missed in the second quarter, making 77.3 percent of their shots overall.
Sensabaugh, who did not play in the first quarter, led Utah with 12 first-half points.
Jovic made good on a triple with 9:53 to go in the third quarter to get the Heat within 67-47, but the Jazz responded with seven unanswered points. Utah ended up leading by as many as 37 in the frame, and both teams emptied their benches in the fourth as the Jazz cruised to the finish.
–Field Level Media
