Heat 108, Nuggets 91: Dwyane Wade scored 22 points as Miami knocked off visiting Denver to maintain its grip on seventh place in the East.

Goran Dragic added 18 points, eight rebounds and five assists for the Heat, who shot 53.1 percent from the floor. Luol Deng finished with 15 points, Hassan Whiteside had 14 points and 10 rebounds and Michael Beasley contributed nine points and season-high three steals off the bench for Miami.

Kenneth Faried scored 20 points and matched his career high with four steals to lead Denver. Jusuf Nurkic matched his season high with 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds, Randy Foye also scored 16, Wilson Chandler had 13 and Ty Lawson finished with 10 points and 12 assists for the Nuggets, who lost Thursday night in Houston.

Beasley scored on the first possession of the second quarter to give the Heat a 24-23 lead after they trailed by as many as 10 in the first quarter and they didn’t give it up the rest of the game. Miami took its own 10-point lead with 7:16 left in the second quarter and led as many as 15 before Nurkic converted a layup just before the buzzer to cut the deficit to 59-46 at the break.

The Nuggets cut into the lead early in the second half as Foye sandwiched 3-pointers around a missed jumper by Whiteside to pull them within seven and Denver got as close as five with 3:45 left in the third quarter, but Miami crept back ahead by nine entering the fourth. Both teams could only manage one basket each for nearly six minutes at the start of the fourth quarter before Henry Walker’s 3-pointer put Miami up by 12 with 6:11 left.

GAME NOTEBOOK: The Heat improved to 8-23 this season when trailing after the first quarter. ... Wade's NBA-leading streak of scoring at least 25 ended at seven games. ... Foye, who came in shooting 43.9 percent from 3-point range in 10 games this month to boost his season mark to 34.5, shot 4-for-11 from beyond the arc.