Five Stars: Heat 108, Nuggets 91

First Star

Goran Dragic (MIA) 19.0

Dragic played a Miami-high 35:40, hitting nine-of-14 from the field for 18 points. He didn't shoot any from outside, and never visited the charity stripe. He also pitched in with eight boards (including five offensive), five assists, two steals and one block, finishing his night with a plus-5 rating.

Second Star

Kenneth Faried (DEN) 18.7

The Manimal sunk 10-of-15 shots in the losing effort, totaling 35:29 of floor time. Along with his 20 points, he also filled up the boxscore with six rebounds, four steals, two assists, and two blocks, posting a minus-11 rating.

Third Star

Hassan Whiteside (MIA) 13.9

Whiteside scored 14 points on the night, racking up Miami's only double-double of the contest with 10 rebounds. He shot five-of-nine and made four free throws (on only six tries!) In addition, he had two blocks and two steals, including an electrifying coast-to-coast steal to dunk in the third quarter. He ended up with a plus-4 rating in 33:43 on the night.

Fourth Star

Wilson Chandler (DEN) 13.6

Chandler played 36:21, scoring 13 points on five-of-eight shooting. He made one-of-three from outside, two-of-two from the line, seven rebounds, and three helpers. He posted a minus-10 rating in his time on the floor.

Fifth Star

Ty Lawson (DEN) 12.0

Lawson barely edged out Dwyane Wade and teammate Jusuf Nurkuc for the fifth spot. He played a game-high 38:02 and notched Denver's only double-double, with 10 points and 12 assists. He shot five-of-12 from the field, and missed all four of his foul shot attempts, along with five rebounds on the night to finish at minus-3.

The Rest

Dwyane Wade (MIA) 11.9

Jusuf Nurkuc (DEN) 11.8

Luol Deng (MIA) 11.1

Michael Beasley (MIA) 9.1

Henry Walker (MIA) 8.5

Mario Chalmers (MIA) 7.9

Chris Andersen (MIA) 6.9

Randy Foye (DEN) 6.4

Will Barton (DEN) 4.9

Erick Green (DEN) 3.3

Udonis Haslem (MIA) 2.3

JJ Hickson (DEN) 0.4

Gary Harris (DEN) 0.1

Tyler Johnson (MIA) 0.0

Joffrey Lauvergne (DEN) 0.0

Zoran Dragic (MIA) -0.3

Dog of the Night

Darrell Arthur (DEN) -3.2

Arthur played 13:17 altogether, missed each of his five shots from the field, dished out a single assist and was whistled for one foul. His team went minus-11 with him on the floor.

I used the GameScore metric pioneered by John Hollinger to rate each of the players for last night's game. www.captaincalculator.com was instrumental in compiling and sorting out the statistical footprint for each player, and those were culled from the Box Score at NBA.COM. Denver Stiffs has more on the Nugs, but if the Heat is your poison, (and I have a feeling that it is), then keep it locked in here at Hot Hot Hoops.