The Miami Heat held the Los Angeles Clippers to 37 percent shooting from the field in the first half, heading into the locker room with a five point lead.
Blake Griffin had 16 and CP3 added 14 for the Clippers. Miami was led by Dwyane Wade and Mario Chalmers, with 11 points each.
Miami scored six of the first eight points of the period, but Griffin hit his first three pointer of the season on his first attempt as the shot clock was expiring to bring the Clippers back to within two, at 30-28.
For a moment, Griffin looked a little unsteady on his feet after taking an inadvertent elbow from Udonis Haslem in the nose. After a spot of blood was cleaned off, Griffin looked ready to play again.
Chris Bosh hit a three pointer to put the Heat up by 11, 39-28 with four and a half minutes to play in the third, their biggest lead of the evening.
The Clippers put together an eight point run to close the Heat lead to three at 39-36 with three to play, capped by ex-Heat player Caron Butler hitting two free throws.
After a Wade layup, Chauncey Billups made his first three-pointer of the evening after missing on his first three attempts to bring the score to 41-39.
Haslem put the lead back at five, 45-40 by tipping in a Shane Battier miss with 28 seconds to go in the half.
With six seconds to play, Billups made his second three pointer of the night to bring the Clippers back to within two, but Chalmers hit his third of the night with 0.2 seconds to play to put the score at Heat 48, Clippers 43.