Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 104-100 win over the Houston Rockets on Sunday night at Toyota Center to close its three-game trip at 2-1 and reach the 30-game mark at 16-14. The Heat now returns to Miami to begin a three-game homestand on Wednesday against the New Orleans Pelicans:

The Heat, short-handed and playing on the second night of a back-to-back, earned a gutsy road win over a quality Rockets team behind another excellent performance from Tyler Herro. But the game ended with an unfortunate moment for both teams.

The Heat and Rockets went back and forth in a first half that included seven lead changes and five ties before Miami entered halftime with a narrow 53-50 lead.

The second half was also a battle, even after the Rockets opened the third quarter on a 23-8 run to turn a three-point deficit into a 12-point lead midway through the period.

That’s because the Heat responded with a run of its own, closing the third quarter on a 20-9 spurt to trim the deficit to one point by the end of the period.

That set up for a tight finish, with the game decided in the final seconds.

The Rockets led by one point with 2:47 to play, but the Heat won the game behind a strong finish just one day after wilting at the end of Saturday’s loss to the Hawks in Atlanta.

Herro hit a contested midrange jumper to give the Heat a one-point advantage with 1:56 left.

Then after two defensive stops, the Heat pulled ahead by four points on a clutch three-pointer from Nikola Jovic 47.4 seconds to play.

The Rockets, which entered with the third-best record in the Western Conference, never regained their footing or composure.

Rockets guard Fred VanVleet was ejected from the game for arguing with an official after committing a five-second violation on an side out-of-bounds situation.

Then with the Heat ahead by five points and with possession of the ball in the final seconds of the game, Herro and Rockets forward Amen Thompson exchanged words before Thompson grabbed Herro’s jersey and threw him down to the court.

Players and coaches from the Heat and Rockets immediately rushed over, as a brief skirmish unfolded before officials took control and separated the two teams.

After a review of the incident, six were ejected with 35.7 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

For the Heat, Terry Rozier and Herro were ejected.

For the Rockets, Jalen Green and Thompson were ejected. Rockets head coach Ime Udoka and assistant coach Ben Sullivan were also ejected.

Despite being thrown out of the game after being thrown to the court in the final seconds, Herro was the star of the night.

Herro led the Heat to the win with 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting from the field and 3-of-7 shooting from three-point range, six rebounds and nine assists.

Heat center Bam Adebayo contributed another double-double with 12 points, 10 rebounds and three steals.

The Heat’s defense was also impressive down the stretch, limiting the Rockets to 18 points on 6-of-25 (24 percent) shooting from the field in the fourth quarter. The Heat improved to 9-0 this season when holding its opponent to 100 points or fewer.

There’s a new Heat injury to monitor, but the hope is it’s not a long-term issue.

After scoring 16 points in 38 minutes during Saturday’s loss in Atlanta, Robinson missed Sunday’s game against the Rockets because of right foot inflammation. It marked just the second game that Robinson has missed this season, as he also was unavailable for the Heat’s Nov. 2 win over the Wizards in Mexico City because of personal reasons.

Robinson hurt his foot during Saturday’s game loss to the Hawks, but kept playing to finish the contest. After Robinson underwent treatment on the injury Sunday, the determination was made to hold him out against the Rockets.

“I don’t have a timeline,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Sunday when asked about Robinson’s status. “But he really wanted to try to go today, just didn’t really pass his protocols. So we don’t think it would be a long-term thing.”

The Heat also remained without Jimmy Butler (return to competition reconditioning), Josh Richardson (right heel inflammation) and Dru Smith (left Achilles surgery) on Sunday.

Butler, who has been at the center of trade speculation this month, missed his fifth straight game after battling a flu-like illness over the last 10 days. The Heat expects Butler to return for its next game — Wednesday against the Pelicans at Kaseya Center.

The Rockets were without two rotation players on Sunday, as Tari Eason (left leg injury management) and Jae’Sean Tate (illness) did not play against the Heat.

With Butler and Robinson out, the Heat moved Rozier and Kevin Love back into the starting lineup.

The Heat opened Sunday’s game with a lineup of Rozier, Tyler Herro, Haywood Highsmith, Love and Bam Adebayo. It marked the fifth game that this group has started this season, but the first one since Nov. 17.

Sunday also marked Rozier’s first start since Nov. 17. Rozier opened the season in a starting role, but moved to the bench to play as a reserve in 14 straight games before the team’s injury issues pushed him back into the starting lineup on Sunday.

For Love, Sunday’s start represented his first game action of any kind since playing three minutes in the Heat’s Dec. 20 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. He had not played in four straight games — missing the first one because of personal reasons and then receiving three straight DNP-CDs (did not play, coach’s decision) with rookie Kel’el Ware taking over as the Heat’s backup center.

Rozier was strong at the start, scoring 12 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field in the first half. But he cooled off, totaling just two points on 0-of-8 shooting from the field in the second half.

Love ended the night with five points on 1-of-7 shooting from the field, six rebounds and one assist 14 minutes.

The Rockets grabbed plenty of offensive rebounds, but it wasn’t enough to overcome their inefficient shooting.

The Rockets are the best offensive rebounding team in the NBA, entering Sunday with the league’s top offensive rebounding percentage (the percentage of available offensive rebounds a team grabs) for the season.

Early on, the Rockets’ dominance on the offensive glass was on display. Houston totaled six second-chance points on six offensive rebounds in the first quarter.

The Rockets went on to finish the game 19 offensive rebounds.

But all those second-chance opportunities didn’t matter because the Rockets only scored nine second-chance points.

That’s because the Rockets struggled to make shots for most of the night, shooting 39.2 percent from the field and 13 of 40 (32.5 percent) on threes in the loss.

The Heat, which entered the game with the NBA’s 22nd-ranked offensive rebounding percentage this season, actually finished with more second-chance points than the Rockets. Miami totaled 15 second-chance points on 15 offensive rebounds Sunday.

Jovic provided an important spark and Ware continued to contribute quality off the bench for the short-handed Heat.

Jovic made his presence felt from the start, recording eight points, three rebounds and three assists in 15 first-half minutes on Sunday.

Jovic ended the night with 18 points, seven rebounds and six assists in 31 minutes.

Ware recorded seven points, seven rebounds and two asssits in 14 minutes. The Heat outscored the Rockets by five points with Ware on the court, and he now holds a plus/minus of plus 34 while playing in each of the Heat’s last five games.

Jovic and Ware were part of a four-man Heat bench rotation that also included Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Alec Burks.

The only available Heat players who did not get into Sunday’s game were Pelle Larsson, Josh Christopher, Keshad Johnson and Isaiah Stevens.

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