The Miami Heat defeated the Houston Rockets 120-113 on Monday night with 28 points from Tyler Herro and 22 points and 12 rebounds from Bam Adebayo.

Duncan Robinson and Jaime Jaquez Jr. both scored 14 for the Heat, while Kevin Love scored 15. Josh Richardson scored 12 for Miami. Adebayo scored 10 fourth-quarter points.

In the Rockets’ six-game road trip opener, Fred VanVleet topped all scorers with 32 points. Houston’s Alperen Sengun scored 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, while Cam Whitmore and Jalen Green each scored 11. Houston missed Dillon Brooks (right oblique strain) for the sixth straight game.

Miami went 6-2 without Jimmy Butler for the seventh time in nine games as he recovers from a right toe joint strain. In the third quarter, Kyle Lowry seemed to hurt his left hand or wrist defending a VanVleet layup effort, his former Toronto colleague and 2019 NBA championship backcourt partner.

Houston is 18-17 in 35 games, considerably below the Rockets’ prior three seasons. They went 11-24 in 2020-21, 10-25 in 2021-22, and 10-25 in 2022-23, winning 17, 20, and 22 games.

“For me, not surprised or happy,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. They bought in from Day 1, and the competitiveness and mentality tell you you have the proper folks. We had five or six games to turn around.”

The Heat led for 20:48 of the first half, while the Rockets led for 1:26, but the scoreboard didn’t indicate it. Houston scored 8-0 in the last 1:27 to tie Miami 59-59 at halftime.

Only the second halftime tie of the season for both sides.

But Miami never trailed in the second half. Herro’s 3-pointer with 4:09 remaining in the third gave the Heat their first double-digit lead of the night, 85-75, and they extended it to 15 in the fourth.