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Heat lose in China, view trip as a win overall

The Miami Heat split a pair of games in China, but Coach Erik Spoelstra was happy with the trip.

Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE - Presswire

The Miami Heat split a pair of games against the Los Angeles Clippers in Shanghai over the past couple of days, but Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said the trip was a win overall, via the Sun Sentinel:

"The most beneficial thing, is taking a trip like this as a team, halfway across the world, experiencing new culture, spending so much time around each other away from the basketball court.

"All of our bus rides together, all of our meals together, sightseeing together, experiencing new things together, that helps team bonding and building. I think some of these experiences we'll remember for the rest of our lives."

The defending NBA champions only played its "Big Three" sparingly over the trip. Dwyane Wade played eight minutes in Sunday's 99-89 loss, while LeBron James and Chris Bosh each played 20 minutes in the game. Los Angeles opened up a 20-point lead at one point Sunday with the Heat's stars limited.

The Heat also played Sunday without Mario Chalmers, Udonis Haslem, Joel Anthony, Dexter Pittman, Mike Miller and James Jones.

Photographs by cstreet.us, thelastminute, turtlemom nancy , fesek, kthypryn, justinwright, sue_elias, pointnshoot, and scrapstothefuture used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.