MIAMI _ With Jimmy Butler off, the Miami Heat needed someone else to step forward on the offensive end Wednesday night.
Kendrick Nunn proved up to the challenge.
With the Heat lethargic at times, coach Erik Spoelstra needed someone to leap into action.
Who better than Derrick Jones Jr.?
And so, in the wake of uneven play that included a pair of weekend losses to the Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks, the Heat did what they almost always do this season at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Make it 18-1 home with the 106-100 victory over the San Antonio Spurs that lifted the Heat to 28-12.
On a night Butler was limited to 12 points on 4-of-11 shooting, Nunn stepped forward with 33 on 13-of-18 shooting. When there was a miss, Jones was there with 12 rebounds, eclipsing his previous season high of seven, two off his career high of 14.
There also were 17 points from Goran Dragic and a 14-point, 13-rebound double-double from Bam Adebayo to help offset 30 points from the Spurs' DeMar DeRozan.
A Butler 3-pointer with 5:24 to play lifted the Heat to an 88-79 lead. It was Butler's first 3-point conversion in 10 appearances, dating to Dec. 20 against the Knicks. He had missed his previous seven attempts before the conversion.
The Heat held on from there, unlike their fourth-quarter collapses in Brooklyn and New York.
Nunn was up to 20 points at the intermission on 8-of-8 shooting. He was unable, however, to help produce more than a 51-51 halftime tie, with DeRozan with 14 points at the break, on 6-of-6 shooting.
At one point in the third period, Nunn and DeRozan both stood 9 of 10 from the field.
Nunn was formally presented his December Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month award at halftime, when he stood 4 of 4 from beyond the arc.
The Heat were without rookie guard Tyler Herro due to a knee bruise sustained during Tuesday's practice.
"If you leave him to his own devices, he's young enough, he'll go," Spoelstra said. "So we wanted to make sure we wanted to do what's best for him. It's not a major thing right now. It's just a knee contusion in the one area."
The injury happened during a full-pad practice.
"Again, I don't know how this happens," Spoelstra said. "Often, we have these guys padded up like Robo Cops and then they get these bruises on the one-centimeter area where they're not padded."
