(SportsNetwork.com) - The Miami Heat are struggling on this current road trip and hope success is on the way when they invade Arizona Tuesday night to take on the Phoenix Suns at US Airways Center.
The Heat have lost four in a row and dropped road bouts in Milwaukee and Memphis to start a five-game sojourn. They are winless in three straight on the road and suffered a 103-87 loss to the Grizzlies Sunday despite Dwyane Wade's 25 points on 11-of-20 shooting.
Josh McRoberts (14), Luol Deng (13), Chris Bosh (12) and Mario Chalmers (12) were other Heat players to score in double figures. Miami made 48.8 percent from the field, but the Grizzlies were much better at 58.9 percent. Memphis used an 8-0 run in the fourth quarter for a 90-79 lead.
"I thought we fought hard, we just didn't have enough to win it," Wade said.
Wade has scored 20 or more points in each of the last nine games, his longest streak since reaching that mark from Feb. 23-March 17, 2013. Wade has shot at least 50 percent from the field in 11 consecutive games.
Miami still has Denver and Utah to visit on this trip and is 5-5 away from home. In injury news for the Heat, Deng (hand) and guard Norris Cole (finger) are probable against the Suns.
The Suns are back home for two straight games versus Miami and Detroit, and suffered a heartbreaking loss to the Los Angeles Clippers Monday night in the finale of a three-game road trip (1-2).
Clippers star forward Blake Griffin hit the game-winning 3-pointer at the overtime buzzer and finished with a season-high 45 points. Suns guard Eric Bledsoe, who spent the first three seasons of his career with the Clippers and was held without a field goal against them last month, totaled 27 points, a career-high 16 assists and 11 rebounds in a losing effort.
"We thought we were going to win it," Phoenix head coach Jeff Hornacek said. "It was so close yet so far away. I thought no way was Blake going to make it."
Bledsoe also swatted Clippers guard Chris Paul's would-be game-winner at the end of regulation into the second row. He has scored 20-plus points three times in the last four games.
Markieff Morris had 21 points, Goran Dragic scored 17 and Gerald Green added 15 off the bench for the Suns, losers in two straight and four of the last six games. The Clippers scored 31 points on 17 Phoenix turnovers.
The Suns fell short of making 50 percent from the field (48.4) and are unbeaten in the previous 26 games when reaching that mark.
Phoenix is 6-4 at home and has five players averaging at least 14 points (Bledsoe, Dragic, Isaiah Thomas, Morris, Green). Thomas has been bothered by a an ankle bruise and has missed seven straight games. He is questionable Tuesday.
The Suns and Heat will play the first of two meetings this season and are scheduled to tangle again March 2 in south Florida. Miami took both matchups with Phoenix last season and has won eight in a row and 11 of the past 12 contests in this series.
Miami is unbeaten in the last six visits to the Copper State.
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