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Heat begin homestand versus Jazz

Dec 17, 2014 - 3:35 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The Miami Heat begin their longest homestand of the season, a seven-gamer, Wednesday night when the Utah Jazz head to American Airlines Arena.

During this two-week stay, the Heat will welcome the Washington Wizards, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers, Memphis Grizzlies, Orlando Magic and of course, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers on Christmas Day.

Miami returns to South Beach after a 95-91 win over the Brooklyn Nets Tuesday night at the Barclays Center.

Dwyane Wade scored 28 points, Luol Deng added 18 and the Heat held off a late Nets rally.

The game was delayed 31 minutes late in the first quarter due to a leakage in the arena's ceiling. The Heat were in the midst of a 10-0 run, and they never relinquished the lead the rest of the way.

Brooklyn trailed by 10 with just over a minute to play, but two free throws from Mason Plumlee and 3-pointers from Joe Johnson and Bojan Bogdanovic cut the deficit to 93-91 with 35.1 seconds remaining.

The Nets forced Wade into a contested 3-pointer that drew iron, and Deng gained position on the block for the rebound over Bogdanovic, who was whistled for a foul with 11.8 ticks left.

Deng made both free throws and Miami successfully bounced back from Sunday's 18-point home loss to Chicago.

"To me this is one of the most gratifying wins of the season. To be able to pull it out shows a lot character and toughness," Wade said.

Miami is only 4-7 at home this season.

The Jazz have been dreadful of late. They've lost three straight and 12 of their last 13. Utah's only victory during that time period was, shockingly, a home win over the San Antonio Spurs on Dec. 9.

Utah began a six-game road trip with back-to-back losses to the Wizards and New Orleans Pelicans, with that setback coming Tuesday night. The Jazz fell 119-111 at Smoothie King Center.

Utah blew a 14-point fourth-quarter lead on Tuesday and was outscored 41-19 over the final 11-plus minutes. After making 57.6 percent of their shots over the first three quarters, the Jazz shot just 29.2 percent (7-of-24) in the fourth, while New Orleans connected on 59.5 percent of its shots for the game.

"(New Orleans) turned it up and a couple of their players made some great plays and had some big-time efforts," Jazz head coach Quin Snyder said.

The Jazz were without forward Derrick Favors due to an ankle injury, but Enes Kanter finished with a career-high 29 points. Gordon Hayward chipped in 17 in the loss.

Trey Burke poured in 14 of his 16 points in the game's first eight minutes. Alec Burks also tallied 16 points, while fourth overall pick in this summer's draft, Dante Exum, finished with a career-high 12. Trevor Booker chipped in 10.

The Jazz still have stops against the Orlando Magic, Charlotte Hornets and Memphis Grizzlies before heading back to Salt Lake City.

The two teams have split the last 10 meetings, but the Heat won in Utah on Friday. The Jazz have won just one of their last 10 trips to American Airlines Arena.