DALLAS _ The Miami Heat already have found a way to lose to the two worst teams in the Eastern Conference. The goal Monday night was to make sure they didn't lose to the two worst teams in the Western Conference within a span of five days.
It almost happened, in what would have been a loss every bit as ugly as Thursday's home humiliation at the hand of the West-worst Sacramento Kings.
But with Hassan Whiteside going for 25 points and 14 rebounds, the Heat held on for a 95-88 victory over the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center.
Again with a late letdown against the downtrodden, the Heat found themselves having to play to the finishing after building an 18-point lead midway through the fourth quarter.
In a season of bad losses, including those to the East-worst Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic, the Heat seized on the Whiteside advantage early against the defense of Dirk Nowitzki to complete the two-game season sweep of Dallas _ barely.
Whiteside, able to feast on the defense of 39-year-old Nowitzki, who hardly was known as much of a defender in his prime, was supported by 13 points from point guard Goran Dragic, with those two coming off uneven Saturday efforts that had them on the bench for the fourth quarter of Saturday's home victory over the Charlotte Hornets.
The Heat also got 14 from Josh Richardson and 12 from Kelly Olynyk.
The victory was about far more than avoiding ignominy, with the game opening a four-game trip that continues Wednesday against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, Friday against Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers and Saturday against, now, Blake Griffin and the Detroit Pistons.
The Heat moved to an 18-point lead midway through the fourth quarter, with Dallas then rallying within 86-75, with Whiteside and Dragic on the bench at that stage.
Those two then returned with 4:22 to play, with Dallas then closing within 86-77 with 4:06 to play on a Wesley Matthews layup.
Whiteside converted a pair of free throws with 3:53 left to put the Heat up 88-77, only to have those two foul shots matched by a pair from Dennis Smith with 3:40 to go, again making it a nine-point game.
A foul on Richardson followed on the other end, with Dragic fouling on the other end. That sent Smith to the line with 3:06 left, making only the second of his two foul shots to draw Dallas within 88-80.
Richardson then drew a foul with 2:53 to play, making only the first an 89-80 Heat lead.
And then it got dicey, with Dwight Powell blowing in for a dunk that drew Dallas within 89-82.
James Johnson followed that with a trip to the line with 2:28 to play, making both foul shots for a 91-82 Heat lead.
Dallas then made it a seven-point game on a pair of Harrison Barnes foul shots with 2:12 to play.
And that's when it really started looking like the loss to the Kings, with a Matthews 3-pointer drawing Dallas within 91-87.
Followed by a Heat 24-second violation with 54 seconds left.
And on it went, this time with a foul on James Johnson with 44.9 seconds left. Barnes then made only the second of his foul shots, to draw Dallas within 91-88, leading to a Heat timeout.
Off a scrambled possession, the Heat then got a layup from Dragic for a 93-88 lead with 25.2 second to go, leading to the Mavericks' final timeout, with the Heat holding on from there.
The Heat pushed to a 16-point lead midway through the third period, as Whiteside continued to dominate against Nowitzki, who eventually was forced to the bench. That also was a lead they held in the third quarter of a recent road loss to the Brooklyn Nets, another lamentable loss to an East bottom feeder.
This time, rookie center Bam Adebayo then helped settle the Heat in the face of a Dallas rally that trimmed their deficit to 10, with the Heat going into the fourth quarter up 75-61.
The Heat used an 11-2 run to eventually move to a 10-point lead in the second period, but with Smith converting a 3-pointer just before the intermission buzzer, Dallas closed within 51-46 at halftime.
Whiteside was up to 13 points and 10 rebounds by then, with the Heat 8 of 18 on 3-pointers at the break.
Up seven earlier, Heat went into second period down 26-22, allowing the Mavericks to shoot 55 percent from the field over the first 12 minutes.
Whiteside had eight points and six rebounds in his 7:16 of action in the first period, immediately setting the tone against Nowitzki.
After setting a franchise low with 22 rebounds in the teams' previous meeting, the Mavericks this time had 23 at halftime.
The game closed the two-game season series. The Heat won the first meeting 113-101 Dec. 22 at AmericanAirlines Arena, with Wayne Ellington coming off the bench to convert eight 3-pointers on a 28-point night, a night the Heat shot .639 from the field. The Heat played that night in the injury absences of Dragic, James Johnson, Justise Winslow and Whiteside, the game that Dion Waiters suffered what turned out to be a season-ending ankle injury.
The Heat entered having won four of the previous five meetings, seeking their second sweep of the two-game series in last three seasons.
The Heat were coming off Saturday's 95-91 victory over the visiting Hornets, holding Charlotte to 13 points in the fourth quarter.
The Mavericks are coming off Saturday's 91-89 loss in Denver.
Dallas entered having lost three of their previous four home games, on a three-game losing streak.
