• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Heat entertain lowly Wizards

Feb 25, 2011 - 4:18 PM (Sports Network) - The road-exhausted Washington Wizards are not expected to achieve any type of success tonight against the star-studded Miami Heat at AmericanAirlines Arena.

The Wizards are a miserable 1-27 as the visitor this season and have dropped three in a row overall, including Wednesday's 117-94 loss in Philadelphia. Rookie sensation John Wall scored 21 points and handed out 12 assists, while Andray Blatche posted 16 points for the Wizards.

"We're having trouble in the third quarter," Washington head coach Flip Saunders said. "I don't know whether we have to change people. We come out and we don't seem to be loose and we don't have enough sweat. We come out and take two or three or four bad shots and can't recover."

Nick Young ended with 15 points for Washington, which received 21 points off the bench from Trevor Booker. Wall has averaged 20.5 points, 9.3 assists and 5.8 rebounds over his last four games, and leads all Eastern Conference rookies in scoring (15.7 ppg) and assists (7.6 apg) this month. Washington forward Al Thornton (ankle) is probable for tonight.

The Wizards, who won their first road game in Cleveland on Feb. 13, dealt Kirk Hinrich and Hilton Armstrong to Atlanta before the NBA trade deadline in exchange for veteran guard Mike Bibby, Jordan Crawford, Maurice Evans and a first-round draft pick.

Miami will try to put its recent loss in Chicago in the rear view mirror when it begins a three-game homestand tonight versus the Wizards, Knicks and Magic. It is 21-5 in south Florida this season and dropped a hard-fought 93-89 decision to the Bulls Thursday from the United Center.

Bulls forward Luol Deng buried the game-winning three-pointer with 16 seconds left, while All-Star guard Derrick Rose scored 26 points. The Heat were led by Dwyane Wade's 34 points on 12-of-24 shooting and LeBron James added 29 points, 10 rebounds and five assists for Miami, which lost for just the second time in 13 tries. Chris Bosh had an ugly night with seven points on 1-for-18 shooting.

"There is no way you can recoup C.B. tonight," James said of Bosh. "He just didn't have the touch tonight. It's hard for a 50 percent shooter to go 1- for-18. It's like (Carlos) Boozer going 1-for-18. It's hard to recoup that."

Heat forward Mike Miller is listed as doubtful tonight with a head/ear infection. The Heat are currently percentage points behind Boston for the top seed in the Eastern Conference.

Miami has beaten the Southeast Division-rival Wizards twice already this season and is 24-6 in the previous 30 matchups between the clubs. Washington is only 4-14 in its past 18 games in South Beach.