Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 120-119 win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night at Intuit Dome to improve to 1-2 on its four-game trip. The Heat (4-3) ends the trip on Wednesday against the Denver Nuggets:

After a poor defensive effort in Sunday’s loss to the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena, it appeared the Heat was going to have another rough defensive night on Monday across town. Then Monday’s second half happened.

After allowing a season-high 130 points in Sunday’s loss to the Lakers, the Heat’s defense again look bad to begin Monday’s contest against the Clippers.

The Clippers took advantage of the Heat’s early defensive issues, totaling 71 first-half points on 52.9 percent shooting from the field and 10-of-23 (43.5 percent) shooting from three-point range to enter halftime with a five-point lead. It marked the second-most points that the Clippers have scored in a single half this season.

The Heat tightened things up in the third quarter to take regain control of the game, limiting the Clippers to 24 points in large part by forcing nine turnovers in the period.

The Heat led the Clippers by as many as 13 points in the third quarter, outscoring Los Angeles 37-24 in the period to enter the fourth quarter with a 103-95 advantage.

But after allowing an eight-point lead slip away in a season-opening loss to the Orlando Magic, wasting a one-point fourth-quarter lead in Thursday’s loss to the San Antonio Spurs and then allowing the Lakers to blow the game open after pulling within two points in Sunday’s fourth quarter, the Heat again needed to face its late-game issues on Monday.

The Heat’s eight-point lead at the start of the fourth quarter disappeared quickly, as the Clippers began the period on a 12-2 run to erase the Heat’s lead and pull ahead by two points just four minutes in the quarter.

This time, though, the Heat found answers down the stretch to escape with the victory in large part because of its physical and disruptive defense.

The Heat and Clippers traded punches in the final minutes, as the two teams found themselves tied at 116 with 1:46 to play.

But center Bam Adebayo made a 15-foot jumper to put the Heat ahead by two points with 1:31 left.

Then Heat guard Norman Powell came away with a steal and Adebayo drew a foul on the other end, hitting both free throws to give Miami a four-point advantage with 57.4 seconds remaining.

The Clippers didn’t go away quietly, though, as guard James Harden made three-pointer to cut the deficit to just one point with 19.7 seconds to play.

Following a timeout, the Clippers forced a jump ball on the Heat’s ensuing inbounds pass. Clippers center Ivica Zubac won the jump ball to give Los Angeles an opportunity to steal a walk-off win, but forward Kawhi Leonard missed a 26-foot three-pointer at the buzzer to allow the Heat to clinch the one-point victory.

The Heat held the Clippers to just 48 points in the second half after the Clippers totaled 71 points in the first half.

The Heat’s offense was also impressive, reaching the 120-point mark for the fifth time in the first seven games of the season.

Adebayo led the Heat with a team-high 25 points and 10 rebounds on Monday.

Heat guard Norman Powell returned from a groin injury and returned to the Intuit Dome to face his former team for the first time since the Clippers traded him to the Heat in early July as part of a three-team trade.

Powell, who spent three-plus seasons with the Clippers before being dealt to the Heat, closed his return to Los Angeles with 21 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field, 2-of-3 shooting on threes and 7-of-7 shooting from the foul line.

Powell started fast, scoring seven points in seven first-quarter minutes and entering halftime with a team-high 13 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field, 1-of-2 shooting on threes and 4-of-4 shooting from the foul line.

Powell has been vocal in recent days about the fact that he’s unhappy with how his Clippers tenure ended. Powell was in extension talks with the Clippers before his sudden trade to the Heat this past offseason.

The Clippers’ decision to trade Powell to the Heat came after he produced All-Star caliber numbers for Los Angeles last regular season, averaging a career-high 21.8 points to go with 3.2 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 48.4% from the field and 41.8% on 7.1 three-point attempts per game.

The Clippers played a tribute video for Powell during the first timeout of Monday’s game, and it was met with nice ovation from the Intuit Dome crowd. Fans even briefly chanted, “Norman Powell,” at the end of the video.

Powell’s return led to a change in the Heat’s starting lineup.

The Heat went smaller, as 6-foot-5 guard Pelle Larsson replaced 7-foot center Kel’el Ware in the starting lineup on Monday. It marked the Heat’s fourth different starting lineup through the first seven games of the season.

The Heat opened Monday’s contest with a lineup of Davion Mitchell, Powell, Larsson, Andrew Wiggins and Bam Adebayo.

This five-man combination had not been used prior to Monday’s game.

Larsson turned in an inspiring effort despite scoring just seven points on four shots in 24 minutes. He was a force defensively, finishing with three steals.

That led to Ware playing off the bench after starting in the previous five games.

It has been an eventful trip for Ware.

In the first game of the trip, the 21-year-old Ware was held scoreless and finished with a team-worst plus/minus of minus 20 in 21 minutes during Thursday’s loss to the Spurs in San Antonio. He also didn’t play in the fourth quarter of that contest because of those struggles.

In the second game of the trip, Ware was benched for the final 18 minutes of the first half after a rough start in Sunday’s loss to the Lakers in Los Angeles. Ware didn’t re-enter the game until late in the third quarter, as he was limited to just 11:30 of playing time in the defeat.

In the third game of the trip, Ware was moved to a reserve role in the Heat’s win over the Clippers on Sunday.

Ware recorded 16 points, five rebounds and two blocks in 18 minutes off the bench.

Ware was part of a five-man bench rotation that also included Jaime Jaquez Jr., Simone Fontecchio, Nikola Jovic and Dru Smith against the Clippers.

The Heat’s new-look offense continues to be the talk of the league early this season.

A night after Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick was asked a few questions about the Heat’s revamped offense, Clippers coach Tyronn Lue spent a chunk of his pregame media session on Monday fielding questions about Miami’s offense.

“That’s what great coaches do, and Spo is a great coach,” Lue said of Spoelstra’s decision to completely change the Heat’s offense to fit this season’s roster. “You’ve got to play, and you’ve got to adjust to the team and the personnel that you have. You just can’t run the same system if you don’t have the same players. And so, Spo does a great job of that, just catering to the team he has and what he has to do to install for the team to be successful. He’s been able to do that this year as far as playing fast, attacking early.”

So far, this season’s offense has represented a drastic shift from recent Heat offenses.

Not only has the Heat been one of the five slowest-paced teams in the NBA in each of the past six regular seasons, but Miami has also never finished the regular season as a top-15 team in pace through Spoelstra’s first 17 seasons as the Heat’s head coach. The Heat has also finished with one of the NBA’s 10 worst offensive ratings in each of the last three seasons.

But the Heat entered Monday with the NBA’s 10th-best offensive rating, and averaging the third-most points per game (124.5) in the NBA while playing at the league’s fastest pace (107.1 possessions per 48 minutes) through the first two weeks of this season.

Along with the high-scoring performances and fast-paced style, the Heat is also using significantly fewer screens and handoffs this season.

Lue also complimented Adebayo’s willingness to adjust his game to fit this new Heat offense.

“To take the ball out of Bam’s hand when he was usually the trigger man and have him love how they’re playing now is just like a testament to Spo’s coaching and then to Bam’s character,” Lue said. “So, it is fun to see and fun to watch.”

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