MIAMI _ On a night the Heat could have moved back to .500 for the first time since the second game of the season, they instead fell from No. 7 to No. 9 in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Such is their razor-thin margin of error, especially with Dion Waiters expected to now miss an extended period with a badly sprained left ankle.
With Damian Lillard blazing from distance and scoring when needed, the Trail Blazers handed the Heat only their second home loss since Jan. 1, with a 115-104 decision Sunday at AmericanAirlines Arena.
"You have a great player who took his game to another level," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Lillard, who closed with 49 points. "We were playing uphill the majority of the night."
And so 34-36 it is, falling out of a playoff seed by virtue of the tiebreaker the Detroit Pistons hold with the same record. Now the push for .500 becomes even more challenging, with games against the Toronto Raptors, Boston Celtics and Pistons to follow Tuesday's home game against the Phoenix Suns.
"They came in here and took this game," Spoelstra said.
Lillard nearly singlehandedly did to the Heat what the Heat had been doing to opponents from the 3-point line, shooting 9 of 12 from behind the arc on the way to a season high scoring total, on a night the Heat were 9 of 31 on 3-pointers.
It was the defense that disappointed Spoelstra.
"We have to score 116 now to win?" he asked. "We have to be able to hold teams under 100."
Forward James Johnson led the Heat with 24 points, with Goran Dragic with 17 and center Hassan Whiteside 17 points and 10 rebounds in a foul-plagued performance.
With Waiters sidelined by the sprained left ankle sustained in Friday's victory over the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves, Spoelstra elected to open with Josh Richardson at shooting guard. The Heat, though, never were able to muster the backcourt defense needed about the Blazers, with guard C.J. McCollum adding 18 points for Portland.
As was the case in the third period, the Blazers pushed to an early eight-point lead in the fourth quarter and the Heat then closed back within one, this time on a Tyler Johnson 3-point play.
Lillard then moved to 7 of 9 on 3-pointers at a stage the Heat were 7 of 28.
And then came another twist, with Whiteside called for his fifth foul with 6:49 to play and the Heat down 92-89, seconds after Whiteside missed an inside attempt that could have drawn the Heat within one.
From there the Blazers matched their largest lead of the game at 99-91, and then made it 104-93 on a five-point possession that featured a Jusuf Nurkic inside basket and a Lillard 3-pointer of an offensive rebound.
Portland took an 85-79 lead into the fourth quarter, with Lillard up to 33 points by that point.
With Lillard up to 21 points by the intermission, the Blazers took a 52-51 lead into halftime.
While the Blazers shot 7 of 16 on 3-pointers in the first half, the Heat, the Heat were only 4 of 19, generating few of the drive-and-kick attempts that had been fueled by Waiters.
Even with Whiteside opening 5 of 5 from the field and the Heat pushing to an early eight-point lead, the Blazers were able to move within 29-28 by the end of the opening period.
Lillard was up to 15 points by then, with Whiteside with 12 points at that stage.
The Heat dropped the first game of the two-game season series 99-92 Dec. 2 in Portland, despite 28 points, 16 rebounds and five blocked shots from Whiteside.
The Heat entered having lost three of the previous five meetings, but having won the previous four matchups at AmericanAirlines Arena.
