All the talk surrounding the Heat over the last 48 hours was about its struggling defense. The Heat’s defense was much better on Wednesday, and it led to a much-needed win.

The win came in dramatic fashion, too, with Klay Thompson hitting a game-winning open corner three-pointer on an after-timeout-inbounds play with one second left in overtime to turn a two-point deficit into a one-point win.

With no timeouts left, the Clippers put up a heave that had no chance of going in as the final buzzer sounded. Heat players stormed the court from the bench to celebrate Thompson’s big shot.

The Heat entered with the NBA’s fourth-worst defensive rating this season after allowing the Los Angeles Lakers to score 138 points on Monday.

The Heat’s defense started Wednesday’s game strong, limiting the Clippers to 24 points and forcing the Clippers into seven turnovers in the first quarter. As a result, the Heat ended the period with a nine-point advantage.

But things changed quickly in the second quarter, as the Clippers caught fire to open the period on a big 39-10 run to turn that nine-point deficit into a 20-point lead with 3:12 left in the first half.

The Clippers shot 8 of 13 (615.%) on threes and the Heat shot just 1 of 9 (11.1%) on threes in the second quarter, as the Clippers took a 67-52 lead into halftime.

The Heat’s defense was better in the third quarter, holding the Clippers to 20 points on 7-of-23 (30.4%) shooting from the field and 3-of-13 (23.1%) shooting from behind the arc in the period.

But the Heat still entered the fourth quarter in a nine-point hole.

The Heat’s defense continued to slow the Clippers’ offense in the final period, as Miami opened the fourth quarter on a 10-4 run to cut the deficit to three points with 7:57 to play.

The Heat eventually pulled within one point with 2:39 left in the fourth quarter and took its first lead of the second half on a pull-up midrange jumper from Bam Adebayo with 1:53 to play.

The Clippers took the lead right back, though, on a layup form Darius Garland to put Los Angeles ahead by one point with 1:32 remaining.

The Heat had an opportunity to regain the lead on the next possession, but Klay Thompson missed an open corner three.

Following a defensive stop, the Heat again had a chance to go ahead. But Adebayo missed a midrange jumper and Pelle Larsson missed a three-pointer.

That gave the Clippers the ball with a one-point lead and 27 seconds to play.

The Heat’s aggressive defense forced Garland into a costly turnover, though, as Giannis Antetokounmpo came away with a steal and drew a foul on a tip-in attempt with 10.8 seconds on the clock.

Antetokounmpo delivered in the clutch, hitting both free throws to put the Heat ahead 107-106.

The Heat needed one more defensive stop to pick up a much-needed win in regulation and couldn’t get it.

Larsson was called for a blocking foul on Clippers forward Rui Hachimura on a drive to the basket with 2.7 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra challenged the foul call on Larsson, and the challenge was successful. But the foul was instead charged to Adebayo for making contact with Garland while trying to block the shot.

Hachimura only made one of the two free throws, though, tying the game at 107.

The Heat still had one final opportunity to win the game in regulation, with possession of the ball and 2.7 seconds to play. Spoelstra drew up an after-timeout-inbounds play for Adebayo, but Adebayo missed the 12-foot jumper to send the game to overtime.

In overtime, a Garland three-pointer put the Clippers ahead by three points with 3:06 left in the extra frame.

The Clippers had an opportunity to extend their advantage, but Antetokounmpo blocked a Hachimura layup attempt and started a semi-transition opportunity for the Heat that ended with a Klay Thompson three-pointer to again knot the score at 112 with 2:12 remaining in overtime.

Garland came back and scored four unanswered points on a pull-up jumper and a floater to put the Clippers ahead by four 1:19 to play in overtime.

Adebayo hit a fadeaway jumper to trim the deficit to two on the next possession, but that’s the final points that the Heat would score on Wednesday.

After getting a defensive stop, the Heat had a chance to win or force double overtime with possession of the ball and 3.3 seconds remaining in overtime. That’s when Thompson delivered in the clutch.

Adebayo led the Heat with a game-high 35 points to go with 10 rebounds, four assists and one steal.

Thompson scored 30 points on 8-of-17 shooting from three-point range.

Antetokounmpo added 27 points, 14 rebounds, six assists, two steals and three blocks.

Despite the group’s early-season struggles, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra stuck with the same starting lineup. But the starting unit wasn’t an issue on Wednesday.

The Heat started Wednesday’s contest with a lineup of Davion Mitchell, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Antetokounmpo and Adebayo for the eighth time in as many games.

This group has been bad to start the season, as this lineup was outscored by 13.3 points in 77 minutes together over the first seven games. Among the 17 lineups around the NBA that entered Wednesday with at least 50 minutes played together this season, the Heat’s starting lineup owned the fifth-worst net rating.

But the Heat’s starters were actually a positive in Wednesday’s loss, outscoring the Clippers by 11 points in 12 minutes together.

Spoelstra opted close the game with a lineup of Mitchell, Thompson, Larsson, Antetokounmpo and Adebayo. Wiggins watched the final minutes from the bench.

Thompson remained hot after his slow start to the season.

After shooting just 3 of 20 (15%) from three-point range in four preseason appearances and averaging only 7.8 points per game on 12-of-37 (32.4 percent) shooting from three-point range through the first five games of the regular season, Thompson has snapped out of his early-season slump.

With Thompson totaling a season-high 30 points in Wednesday’s loss, he has now scored double-digit points in three straight games.

Thompson was especially hot early on, scoring 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 shooting on threes in nine first quarter minutes on Wednesday.

Thompson is now averaging 24.7 points per game over the last three games.

Thompson ranks fourth in NBA history in all-time threes made behind only No. 3 Ray Allen, No. 2 James Harden and No. 1 Stephen Curry.

The Heat made a minor change to its rotation, playing three-point shooting forward Simone Fontecchio for his first meaningful minutes of the young season.

Fontecchio, who had only played late in lopsided games through the first seven games of the season, entered for his first action of Wednesday’s game with 9:05 left in the second quarter.

But Fontecchio was quiet, missing both of his three-point attmepts to finish scoreless in his five minutes off the bench.

Fontecchio was part of a Heat bench rotation that also included Ryan Conwell, Bobby Portis Jr., Pelle Larsson and Tim Hardaway Jr. on Wednesday.

Conwell, a rookie, played a career-high 17 minutes in the game. He finished scoreless, but provided quality defense in his time on the court.

Among those who were available for the Heat but did not play against the Clippers were Dru Smith, Nikola Jovic, Myron Gardner, Nick Richards.

Thompson and Wiggins now return to a familiar place.

With the Heat flying to San Francisco following Wednesday’s game to complete the back-to-back against the Warriors on Thursday night, it’s a reunion game for Thompson and Wiggins.

Thompson spent the prime of his Hall of Fame NBA career with the Warriors, the team that he spent his first 11 NBA seasons with after Golden State drafted him with the 11th overall pick in 2011. As part of an iconic duo labeled “The Splash Brothers” with Curry, Thompson was named an NBA All-Star five times (2015-19), selected for the All-NBA Third Team two times (2014-15 and 2015-16), picked for the NBA All-Defensive Second Team in 2018-19 while winning four NBA championships (2015, 2017, 2018 and 2022) with the Warriors.

Thompson, 36, left the Warriors to join the Dallas Mavericks during the 2024 offseason. He spent the last two seasons with the Mavericks before signing with the Heat in August.

Thompson played the Warriors in San Francisco four times since leaving Golden State two years ago. He’s 1-3 in those games.

Wiggins, the No. 1 pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, spent parts of six seasons with the Warriors before being dealt to the Heat midway through the 2024-25 season. As a member of the Warriors, Wiggins was voted into the 2022 NBA All-Star Game as a starter and went on to log the second-most minutes for Golden State during the 2022 playoff run that ended in an NBA championship.

Wiggins has played the Warriors in San Francisco just once since being dealt to the Heat, falling to his former team at Chase Center on Jan. 19, 2026.

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