Five takeaways from the Clippers’ 102-98 win over the Miami Heat

The Clippers’ defense faltered down the stretch, but they were able to hold on to capture a 102-98 win on the road against the Miami Heat:

Below are five takeaways from the game:

1. The Clippers second unit of Jamal Crawford, Raymond Felton, Wes Johnson, Alan Anderson and Marreese Speights took control of the game in the second quarter.

They helped extend a four-point first-quarter lead to 10 points in the second quarter.

Austin Rivers usually is part of that group, but he started in place of Luc Mbah a Moute.

The reserves had 29 points for the Clippers during the win.

2. The Clippers’ play started to slip in the fourth quarter, which in turned allowed the game to get too close for comfort.

They shot just 33.3% from the field, missing all four of their three-pointers. But the Clippers’ defense saw the Heat make 50% of its shots in the fourth and score 29 points.

The Clippers pulled out the win because they made 11 of 14 free throws in the final 12 minutes, five of six in the last 16.2 seconds of the tight game.

3. This was a game in which the Clippers took good care of the basketball. They had just 10 turnovers, but Blake Griffin had five of them.

4. The Clippers improved to 11-3 on the road.

They are one of three teams with at least 11 victories away from home, joining the San Antonio Spurs, who have 14 road wins, and Golden State Warriors, who have 13.

5. It was a rare two days for the Clippers down here in Miami. First, the Clippers practiced on Thursday and then they followed that up with a shoot-around Friday before the game later that night.

“Yesterday (Thursday), we didn’t do any contact,” Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said. “But we did get up and down the floor. We went a long time without practice, and it hurt us.

“It definitely hurt our team. It was the right thing to do. We needed to get on the floor and just work. We were able to walk over a lot of defensive stuff, reintroduce the new guys to the offensive stuff we put in in training camp since they clearly couldn’t remember it anymore. It was nice, though.”