Bub Carrington made a heavily contested floater at the buzzer to lead the visiting Washington Wizards over the short-handed Miami Heat 119-118 on Sunday.
Down seven with four minutes remaining, the Heat went on an 11-0 run featuring an alley-oop finish and a game-tying and-one from Keshad Johnson. They took a 118-114 lead with 8.5 seconds left, but Justin Champagnie cut it to one with a quick 3-pointer.
Miami’s Josh Christopher then committed a costly turnover in the backcourt to give Washington (18-64) the ball back with 4.4 seconds left, setting up Carrington’s game-winner.
The Heat (37-45) will visit the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday in the play-in tournament, and if they win, they advance to play on Friday against the loser of Tuesday’s matchup between the Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic. If the Heat win both games, they will be the East’s No. 8 seed and play a first-round series against the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers.
Carrington scored 15 points and tallied nine assists in the win, though the Wizards were led by a career-high 28-point performance by second-year forward Tristan Vukcevic.
Vukcevic had an efficient afternoon from the field, shooting 9-of-12 overall and 4-of-6 from 3-point range. Vukcevic grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds, marking his first double-double in the NBA.
Champagnie also had a hot hand for Washington with 27 points on 11-of-17 shooting, making 5 of 9 attempts from 3-point range. Colby Jones chipped in 20 points for Washington off the bench.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. led Miami with a career-high 41 points in the loss, tallying 10 rebounds and seven assists. Jaquez made 17 of 25 attempts from the field. Johnson and Christopher each added 17 points off the bench, while Kel’el Ware chipped in 13 points.
The Heat were without Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro on Sunday, in addition to Andrew Wiggins, who was held out with what was listed as a hamstring injury.
The Wizards held a 94-86 lead after three quarters, though Miami quickly cut into that lead with an 8-2 run to start the fourth. The brief rally culminated with a Jaquez dunk that cut Washington’s lead to 96-94 with 10 minutes remaining. Washington responded, however, and managed to regain control for the next several minutes.
–Field Level Media
