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Heat host Clippers in south Florida

Feb 6, 2011 - 4:02 PM (Sports Network) - The Miami Heat have a relatively easy schedule the next two games in south Florida, starting with today's bout with the Los Angeles Clippers from AmericanAirlines Arena.

The Heat will also host Indiana and are 18-5 as the host this season. They have won three in a row on their own court.

Miami posted its fifth straight win overall with Friday's 109-97 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats at Time Warner Cable Arena, as Dwyane Wade recorded his first triple-double of the season with 22 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. LeBron James scored 19 points to go with nine assists and eight boards for the Heat, who got 16 points from reserve Eddie House.

"We got the defensive stops we needed in the fourth quarter," said Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra. "It still wasn't the type of sustained consistency that I look for, but we got them when we needed to."

Spoelstra's squad has scored 100-plus points in four consecutive games -- one shy from tying a season high of five straight. Wade posted the fourth triple- double of his career, while House has scored in double figures in eight of his last 10 games off the bench. James had scored 20 or more points in 14 straight games until the Bobcats held him to 19.

Los Angeles will continue its monstrous 11-game road trip tonight and opened the trek with Friday's 101-100 loss in Atlanta. Hawks big man Al Horford was clobbered by Clippers forward Blake Griffin down low late in the game and sank a pair of foul shots with six-tenths of a second to go for the win.

"I just went for the ball," Griffin said of the collision. "It was a last second shot, I mean [Joe Johnson] had a wide open dunk. I felt I went straight up but [the officials] thought otherwise."

Baron Davis led the Clippers with 22 points and 13 assists, while Griffin finished with 19 points and 11 boards for LA, which has lost five in a row on the road and fell to 3-16 away from home this season. The Clippers have dropped back-to-back games overall and four of six contests.

The Clippers will also meet Orlando, New York, Cleveland, Toronto, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Oklahoma City and New Orleans before returning to southern California on Feb. 25 to play the role as road team in their own building against the Lakers.

Los Angeles was able to defeat the Heat, 111-105, on Jan. 12 at Staples Center behind 24 points and 14 rebounds from Griffin. Wade scored a game-high 31 points for Miami in that one. The Clippers are 12-7 in the last 19 meetings with the Heat, but own a 4-11 mark in their past 15 trips to south Florida.