Dallas Mavericks at Miami Heat

Heat spoil Doncic's 21st birthday, top Mavericks 126-118

So after wasting another lead, the Heat found a way to rally.

Jimmy Butler scored 26 points, Duncan Robinson added 24 and the Heat scored the first 13 points of the fourth quarter to spark a 126-118 win over the Mavericks.

"Overall, we just needed to gut something out together, collectively against a really good team," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

Goran Dragic and Kendrick Nunn each had 16 points for Miami. Bam Adebayo added 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Heat, who won for just the third time in their last 10 games.

"We stayed together through their runs," Butler said.

"I couldn't catch the ball," Doncic said. "I didn't know how important the thumb was to hold the ball. It was tough. ... I wasn't myself today. Just have to learn from that and move on."

So the mood was festive, and even the non-Slovenian Heat fans liked how things looked when Miami took a 12-point lead in the third quarter.

"Seth was great," Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. "His shooting of the basketball has been phenomenal for a stretch here. That's definitely a positive."

Dallas' lead was 93-88 going into the fourth, before the 13-0 Heat run to open the final quarter put Miami back on top for good.

TIP-INS

Mavericks: Jalen Brunson (right shoulder sprain) is rehabbing and has told the team that he is feeling improvement, but there is no timetable for any possible return. ... JJ Barea, who went to high school in Miami and was a big part of the Mavs' win over the Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals, played on the Heat home floor for the first time since Dec. 22, 2017.

TURNING 21

Amid the celebrating of Doncic's 21st birthday Carlisle was asked pregame if he recalled what he was doing when he hit that age on Oct. 27, 1980, when he was preparing for his sophomore season at Maine: "I don't exactly remember, but I wasn't going for my 22nd triple-double in a year and a half or whatever," Carlisle said.

RECORD CHASING

UP NEXT

Mavericks: Visit Minnesota on Sunday, the third game of a four-game trip. Dallas has another four-game trip looming in mid-March.

Heat: Host Brooklyn on Saturday, the first Feb. 29 home game in team history. Miami is 1/3 all-time on the leap year date, the last of those games a loss at Seattle in 2008.

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Regular Season Series

MIA wins series 2-0