MIAMI (AP) — Erik Spoelstra got a milestone win, and it didn’t come easily.Jimmy Butler scored 29 points, Bam Adebayo scored 21 and the Miami Heat went on a 17-0 run in the second half before hanging on late to beat the San Antonio Spurs 116-111 on Wednesday night.
It was the 600th regular-season win for Spoelstra, making him the 27th coach in NBA history to win that many and just the sixth coach to do so with one franchise. The Heat (33-30) remained No. 7 in the Eastern Conference, tied with No. 6 Boston (33-30) and now one game behind No. 5 Atlanta (34-29).
Adebayo added 11 rebounds for Miami, which got 18 points from three players — Kendrick Nunn, plus reserves Goran Dragic and Dewayne Dedmon. Dragic had seven assists, giving him 2,004 in his Miami career and tying him with two-time NBA champion Mario Chalmers for third-most in team history.
Dejounte Murray had 22 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists for the Spurs, who were without starting guard Derrick White, who is expected to miss the rest of the season with a sprained ankle. DeMar DeRozan scored 20 for the Spurs, who got 18 from Lonnie Walker IV, 13 from Rudy Gay and 11 from Devin Vassell.
San Antonio led by seven late in the third, but Miami scored the next 17 points — the last two coming to open the fourth — and finished off a two-game season sweep of the Spurs for only the fourth time.
Miami led by 14 early but settled for a 55-54 lead at the half, and that came after Dragic banked in a 3-pointer with one-tenth of a second left. That was one of two nice second-quarter breaks for the Heat, the other coming when a charging call against Adebayo was overturned with 7:53 left and became the third foul on San Antonio’s Jakob Poeltl instead.
The Spurs tried to get a foul assessed to Poeltl overturned with 20.8 seconds left, after he was whistled for making contact with Butler on a 16-footer as the shot clock was winding down and Miami clinging to a three-point lead. But the call held, Butler made both free throws and Miami held on.
