MIAMI _ It is a moment that had been a long time coming, more than two months in the making.
But now, for the first time since an Oct. 27 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers, the Miami Heat have a winning record.
With Friday night's 115-109 victory over the Washington Wizards at AmericanAirlines Arena, the Heat improved to 19-18, their first time above .500 since standing at 3-2.
While work remains, the Heat took care of the workmanlike task at hand, pushing aside an injury-ravaged opponent lacking John Wall, Markieff Morris and Dwight Howard.
It was a victory fueled by the double-double efforts of center Hassan Whiteside and de facto point guard Justise Winslow.
Whiteside took care of the power play, closing with 21 points and 18 rebounds. Winslow reached a career high in assists, closing with 10 in addition to 13 points.
Those combined efforts proved enough to offset 33 points from Wizards guard Bradley Beal.
After the Heat led by 11 early and then 105-95 with 7:02 left, their lead was trimmed to 109-104 with 2:34 to play on a Tomas Satoransky layup, with a driving layup by Beal with 1:27 left trimming the Heat's lead to 109-106.
That's when Dwyane Wade got to the line with 1:12 left, making just the first of his two free throws, which immediately was followed by a Beal 3-pointer that trimmed the Wizards' deficit to one.
A wild runner by Winslow gave the Heat a 112-109 lead, with Jeff Green then rimming out a 3-pointer that could have tied it.
With 19.4 seconds to play, center Bam Adebayo made one of two free throws for a 113-109 Heat lead.
The Heat then utilized a foul they had to give, with the Wizards again inbounding, this time with 16.6 seconds left down four.
A missed 3-pointer by Otto Porter then was off, with Wade putting it away with a pair of a pair of free throws with 10.2 seconds left that put the Heat up 115-109.
