RECAP: Wade, Whiteside lead Heat to 110-99 win over Nets

Without point guard Goran Dragic, the Miami Heat knew they would all have to do just a little bit more to get a win. And even against the 21-51 Brooklyn Nets, that's exactly what the rotation did.

The Heat won the game 110-99 and improved to 43-30 on the season.

Remember the Nets won three months ago in Miami when Wayne Ellington and Thomas Robinson came in and shot the lights out. This time, although the Nets were pesky, persistent and played fairly well for much of the game...the Heat weren't letting anything slip away.

In a tight race in the East were a loss can send your team from 3rd to 6th in a night, the Heat need every victory. And without Dragic, Josh Richardson got the start, and continued his great play. Richardson attacked, shot the ball well and as always played great defense. He had 16 (6-9 FG) points and 5 rebounds in his 38 minutes.

In Joe Johnson's first game against the Brooklyn Nets ever (he played agains the New Jersey Nets previously), he became a distributor. He had 7 assists while having a poor shooting night.

The first half was played pretty close and had the Heat leading by 5 at halftime. Both teams shot 61% in the first half. But the second half had the Heat starting to pull away. Miami had a 13 point lead in the third although it was trimmed to seven by the end of the quarter. In the fourth, the Heat just took over. Hassan Whiteside just kept getting lobs and rebounds and the Heat defense played really well for the most part.

Hassan ⬆️ pic.twitter.com/qinmS1bEHI

— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) March 29, 2016

The biggest difference in the game was Dwyane Wade. He was on from the beginning. He showed footwork and a great fluidness to his game, both scoring a distributing. Wade had 30 points (14-19 FG) and 9 assists. Father Prime did his thing.

Not to be overlooked: Hassan Whiteside scored a career-high 27 points and also had 8 rebounds. He continued to play hard and well despite Brook Lopez also having a good game with 26 points.

Justise Winslow also had 13 points, but left the game with an minor injury in the 4th quarter. Josh McRoberts and Gerald Green also joined the rotation for the game.

Some other key stats: the Heat shot 57% and and only had 12 turnovers. They were out-rebounded but had the advantage with 25 assists on the game.

The Heat next play in L.A. against the Lakers on Wednesday at 10:30 PM EST.