Heat, Pelicans looking for healthy bodies, and a win

The New Orleans Pelicans and the Miami Heat were both short-handed for their last game, but both won nonetheless.

Now each hope to have more available bodies when they meet Saturday in Miami.

The Pelicans were missing four of their top seven scorers when they got just their third win of the season by beating the visiting Clippers 132-127 on Thursday.

Jrue Holiday broke out of a shooting slump to score 36 points and help spoil Paul George's Clippers debut. George finished with 33 points in his return from offseason surgery on both shoulders.

Pelicans leading scorer Brandon Ingram missed his second straight game because of knee soreness, point guard Lonzo Ball missed his third straight game because of a groin injury and Josh Hart and Jahlil Okafor were late scratches. All are considered day to day.

In their absence, Holiday reached his season high for points in the second quarter when he got to 20.

"I think the one thing he did tonight is he just kind of went out and played -- played like Jrue Holiday," Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry told reporters. "As good as he was offensively, I thought he was great defensively also."

Frank Jackson added 23 points, Derrick Favors had 20 points and 20 rebounds, JJ Redick scored 19 and E'Twaun Moore had 15 in New Orleans' highest-scoring performance of the season.

"Every guy wanted this win on this team," Favors said. "We came out with a lot of energy and played hard. People weren't selfish. Jrue came in hot and we kept feeding him the ball, and he continued to make good plays for us. We just played great team ball and got a win."

The Heat have been playing good team ball, themselves. They had 31 assists on 43 field goals in a 108-97 victory at Cleveland on Thursday and 34 assists on 41 field goals in a 117-108 home victory against Detroit two nights earlier.

"That's what we emphasize," coach Erik Spoelstra said, "sharing the ball."

All nine of the Miami players who saw action in Cleveland scored. Six of them scored in double figures -- led by rookie Kendrick Nunn's 23 points and Bam Adebayo's 16 points and 15 rebounds.

Rookie Tyler Herro returned from an ankle injury and came off the bench to score 16, Jimmy Butler had 14, Meyers Leonard 12 and Duncan Robinson 11. Adebayo played 40 minutes, Butler played 39 and Nunn played 37.

Dion Waiters is serving a 10-game suspension, Justise Winslow, Derrick Jones Jr. and KZ Okpala didn't make the trip because of health issues, and James Johnson was available but didn't play because of illness.

The Heat hold the top spot in the Southeast Division and could have more players available as they try to improve on their 4-0 home record.

Miami has built huge leads but allowed them to cut more than in half in the last two games. The Heat led the Cavaliers 68-44 at halftime and increased the lead to 27 in the third quarter before it shrunk to 10 in the middle of the fourth quarter. Against Detroit, a 29-point lead dropped to seven in the fourth quarter.

"I feel like when we get big leads, we tend to relax," Adebayo said. "We've just got to get better after the first half."

--Field Level Media