NEW ORLEANS _ If nothing else, the Miami Heat know drama.
Trouble is, they also know plenty about losing lately.
Putting themselves into yet another fight to the finish, the Heat emerged with a now all-too-familiar result Friday night at Smoothie King Center, falling 124-123 in overtime to the New Orleans Pelicans.
With guard Jrue Holiday helping finish what Anthony Davis started, including the winning nine-foot jumper with 7.3 seconds to play, the Pelicans handed the Heat their eighth loss in the last nine games.
Now on a six-game road losing streak, the Heat now will get the opportunity to settle themselves with a five-game homestand that opens Saturday at AmericanAirlines Arena against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Davis led the Pelicans with 45 points, with Holiday coming on late to close with 29.
The Heat got 30 points from Goran Dragic and 19 points and 16 rebounds from Hassan Whiteside, who fouled out with 1:43 left in overtime.
With Kelly Olynyk missing his fifth consecutive game with a strained left shoulder and with Rodney McGruder on a developmental-league assignment with the G League Sioux Falls Skyforce, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra stayed with the same lineup utilized during the struggles before the All-Star break.
That had Whiteside opening at center, Justise Winslow opening at power forward against Davis, Josh Richardson at small forward, Tyler Johnson at shooting guard and Dragic at point guard, in his first appearance since his first All-Star Game appearance.
Winslow lasted less than three minutes before he was forced to the bench with his second foul, with 9:05 left in the first quarter.
The Pelicans opted for a bigger lineup against Whiteside, opening with Emeka Okafor at center and playing Nikola Mirotic off the bench.
James Johnson opened the scoring in overtime with a jumper that was matched by a Holiday layup for a 110-110 tie.
Dragic then drained a 3-pointer for a 113-110 Heat lead, with a Davis basket trimming the Heat lead to one.
Dragic then again stepped into a jumper for a 115-112 Heat lead, a short-lived lead, with Mirotic draining a 3-pointer to tie it 115-115.
Having found his stroke, James Johnson then drained a jumper for a 117-115 Heat lead.
But after misses by Davis and Dwyane Wade, Whiteside then fouled out with 1:43 left on a Davis inside attempt. Davis made both attempts to tie it 117-117.
Wade then missed a jumper to fall to 5 of 17 from the field, with Davis dunking on the other end for a 119-117 Pelicans lead with 70 seconds to play.
James Johnson then scored on a driving layup with 59 seconds left to tie it 119-119, with Davis off on the other end.
Wade then finally came through, with a floating runner with 35.5 seconds to play for a 121-119 Heat lead.
The Pelicans, unable to inbound, then had to burn their final timeout, with those 35.5 seconds remaining.
That lead, however, was short-lived, with New Orleans feeding Davis for a layup, fouled on the play with 29.9 seconds to play by Bam Adebayo. The ensuing free throw put the Pelicans up 122-121.
That led to the Heat calling their final timeout.
The Heat again went to Wade, who buried a 15-foot jumper with 21 seconds to play, only to be countered by a Holiday basket for the final points, with Wade off with a jumper just before the buzzer.
Regulation ended when Davis missed a driving layup, with the Heat calling time with eight-tenths of a second to play in the fourth quarter, advancing the ball to midcourt.
The Heat then tried to get Ellington moving toward the basket, with the Heat guard instead stepping out of bounds on the end line with three-tenths of a second remaining.
That left the Pelicans, without a timeout remaining and unable to advance the ball, ending regulation with their halfcourt inbound pass deflected by Wade.
Whiteside was forced to the bench midway through the fourth quarter when a bad pass from James Johnson led to Whiteside's fifth foul.
From there, the Pelicans moved to a 100-99 lead on a driving Davis layup with 3:59 to play in regulation. A Holiday driving layup then put the Pelicans up 102-99, their largest lead to that stage. Another Holiday drive made it 104-99, with a Davis 3-pointer later opening New Orleans' lead to 106-101.
But Dragic later would convert a pair of free throws to bring the Heat within 106-104, with Wade then getting to the line with 34.3 seconds to play in the fourth quarter after a Holiday turnover. Wade converted both free throws to tie it 106-106.
That led to a Pelicans timeout and a Davis 16-foot jumper with 23.7 seconds to play to in regulation to put the Pelicans up 108-106.
Wade then was off with a jumper, but Dragic snuck in to score on the rebound to tie it 108-108 with 14 seconds to play in the fourth, closing the scoring in regulation.
The Heat went into the fourth quarter up 89-84, despite Davis being up to 30 points by that stage, with Winslow 1 of 6, James Johnson 1 of 7 and Wade 4 of 11 to that point.
The Heat pushed to a nine-point lead in the second period before the Pelicans closed within 59-57 at halftime behind 21 first-half points from Davis and 19 from former Heat summer-league standout Ian Clark.
The Heat shot just 6 of 13 from the foul line in the first half, offsetting some of their 44-22 scoring advantage in the paint over the opening two period.
The Heat limited the Pelicans to 7-of-24 shooting in the first period in moving to a 27-22 lead.
