Heat get physical and feisty in pushing past Rockets 104-100 behind Herro’s 27

A reasonable New Year’s resolution for the Miami Heat? Aspiring to something more than average.

Sunday night in Houston moved Erik Spoelstra’s team in that direction, in a feisty display.

With guard Tyler Herro continuing to thrive as both a leading man and a complete contributor and with backup big man Nikola Jovic also filling out the boxscore, the Heat pushed past the Rockets 104-100 at Target Center to make it three victories in their past four games.

While 16-14 might not have been the ultimate goal at the New Year’s break, with the Heat 19-13 a year ago at the same break, this had the feeling of somewhat of a statement, in a game punctuated by a scuffle with 35.7 seconds to play that left two players on each side as well as a pair of Rockets coaches ejected.

Through it all, the Heat found a way to finish, unlike Saturday’s loss in Atlanta.

Granted, Sunday wasn’t the complete Heat, with Jimmy Butler and Duncan Robinson sidelined, but there still was a perseverance of a team aspiring to be more than middling.

Herro closed with 27 points, nine assists and six rebounds, with Jovic adding 18 points, seven rebounds and six assists. The Heat also got 12 points and 10 rebounds from center Bam Adebayo.

Five Degrees of Heat from Sunday night’s game:

1. Closing time: The Heat led 31-27 at the end of the first period and 53-50 at halftime.

The Rockets then scored the first nine points of the second half as part of a 14-2 run that helped them go up 12 in the third period, before the Heat ended the quarter with a 14-5 run to close within 82-81 going into the fourth.

A pair of Fred VanVleet 3-pointers quickly pushed the Rockets to a seven-point fourth-quarter lead, with the Heat then pushing back, as they did a day earlier in Atlanta, tying it with 4:47 to play on a Haywood Highsmith 3-pointer.

Later, a Herro jumper put the Heat up 95-94 with 1:56 to play.

And that’s when Jovic stepped up with a 3-pointer for a 98-94 Heat lead with 47.4 seconds to play.

Matters then took a unique turn, with the Rockets’ not only called for a five-second inbounding violation coming out of that timeout, but VanVleet called for a technical foul. A Herro free throw for that technical foul moved the Heat to a 99-94 lead.

2. Wild finish: Emotions overheated with 35.7 to play during an inbounds set, when Herro and second-year Rockets forward Amen Thompson, the former Fort Lauderdale Pine Crest standout, got tangled up on an inbounds play.

Thompson wound up throwing Herro to the court, with all 10 players on the court coming together.

Herro and fellow Heat guard Terry Rozier were ejected, with the Rockets’ Thompson, Jalen Green, Rockets coach Ime Udoka and Rockets assistant coach Ben Sullivan all ejected.

3. Another change: With Robinson unable to go because of foot pain, Spoelstra shook up the Heat starting lineup, inserting both Rozier and Kevin Love.

It was Rozier’s first start since being moved to the bench on Nov. 26 against the Bucks, after starting in his first 12 appearances.

It was Love’s first action in five games, having given way as Adebayo’s backup in favor of first-round pick Kel’el Ware.

Both were active early, Love with five rebounds in his opening seven-minute stint, Rozier with a team-high eight first-quarter points.

Rozier closed with 14 points and five rebounds, Love with five points and six rebounds.

4. And then Jovic: As has become his preference, Spoelstra then substituted in Jovic and Ware together in the first period.

Jovic immediately made a difference with his play, up to eight points, five rebounds and three assists by halftime.

One of those three assists was a no-look feed along the baseline to the opposite corner for a Highsmith 3-pointer.

When the two entered together in the second half, it was Ware who helped spark the Heat in their rally from 12 down,  closing his 14 minutes with seven points and seven rebounds.

5. The Butler watch: Sunday was the 10th game in the season’s first 30 that Butler has missed, again listed as out due to “return to competition reconditioning,” after previously being listed as out due to a stomach illness.

The expectation in the ever-evolving situation that also has involved ample trade speculation is for Butler to resume practicing with the team Tuesday and then return in Wednesday night’s New Year’s Day game against the league-worst New Orleans Pelicans at Kaseya Center.

The Heat went into Sunday 4-5 in Butler’s absence this season and 2-2 amid this latest five-game absence.