The Golden State Warriors beat Miami Heat 123-110 at the Chase Center in San Francisco, California, on Thursday to avoid straight losses.

The two teams are very much alike on several fronts. For example, both played a lot of give-and-takes on offense; both rely on an undersized big man for defense (Bam Adebayo of the Heat and Draymond Green of the Warriors); both gave a bench scorer an expensive contract extension during the offseason (Tyler Herro of the Heat and Jordan Poole of the Warriors).

There are obvious differences between the two teams as well. For instance, the Heat lifted Herro to the starting lineup this season, expecting him to share more offensive duties with Jimmy Butler. However, Herro shot 3-for-12 from the field to get only seven points. By contrast, the Warriors still had Poole begin off the bench, though his 11 points was not too productive either, Poole did a much better orchestrating job by delivering seven assists.

Though both Adebayo and Green play key roles in their teams, their playing styles are very different. Adebayo has better individual attack skills and went 10-for-13 in field goals (FGs) to score 26 points for the Heat; Green is better at moving the ball which was reflected by the four assists and other passing stats he had in Thursday's game.

One thing Adebayo might envy Green about was the extra help Green received from his teammates in protecting the paint and rebounds. The Heat nearly had no substitute for Adebayo on Thursday night – their 2.08-meter-tall rookie Nikola Jovic played less than eight minutes, not to mention he was playing more often as a swingman before coming to the NBA.

The above short-handedness in big men led to the Heat's deficit in rebounds 50-31. The Warriors grabbed eight more offensive rebounds, which were turned into 27 second-chance points, 18 more than the Heat's work in this area. They also used this opportunity to help their young center James Wiseman do more work. He shot 5-for-8 in FGs, all in the paint, to get 10 points and six rebounds.

Nonetheless, the cost of feeding Wiseman was that around a third of the Warriors' 19 turnovers in Thursday's game happened in the moments when Wiseman's teammates tried to pass him the ball. His narrow finishing range and lack of ability to deal with the ball meant he must receive the ball next to the hoop to finish. That made it difficult and risky for other Warriors to pass to him.

That's why the Warriors limited Wiseman's time on the court to less than 14 minutes and removed Jonathan Kuminga from regular rotations. When the two were on the court together, they generated nothing but a disaster. The team also added Jevon Looney's time from 20 to almost 30 minutes on Thursday night. He got seven points, eight rebounds, four assists and +12 of plus/minus, the third-highest in the game.

Without enough help from his teammates, Jimmy Butler did everything an ace could do for the Heat, leading in points scoring (27), assists (eight), steals (six) and 3-point shooting (4-for-7). It was not enough to help his team win, not to mention that Butler was outmatched by his Warriors counterpart Stephen Curry, who got 33 points, seven rebounds and nine assists after draining seven triples.

Other games on Thursday (away teams come first):

Dallas Mavericks 129-125 Brooklyn Nets

When Luka Doncic dropped a triple-double of 41 points, 11 rebounds and 14 assists for the Mavericks, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant went halves with him in performance by combing to score 76 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists for the Nets. However, the Nets lost in overtime at the Barclays Center despite the fact that they had one more well-performing star than the Mavericks. Why?

Perhaps because when Durant or Irving was taking a breath, the rest of the Nets went 17-for-41 from the field. By contrast, Doncic could rely on his teammates to shoot 27-for-53 in FGs, including 18-for-34 from downtown. Or, perhaps because the Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd intentionally reduced JaVale McGee's time in Thursday's game because it's better for his team to keep a five-out squad on the court. By contrast, Nets coach Steve Nash kept Ben Simmons and Nicolas Claxton, neither of whom shot 3-pointers, for over 37 and 28 minutes respectively.

Los Angeles Clippers 110-118 Oklahoma City Thunder

The Thunder don't have any pressure to win this season, but they have a lot of young players on their roster. Usually, youngsters are more motivated to work hard and win in the game. On Thursday at Paycom Center, the team saw six of their players, four from the starting lineup and two from the bench, score in double-digits, and they beat the Clippers for the second time in three days.

The last time the Clippers lost to the Thunder on Tuesday, they had neither Paul George nor Kawhi Leonard. George returned in Thursday's game, but underperformed as he shot 4-for-12 to get only 10 points and seven rebounds. The reason given by the team for Leonard's absence was stiffness in his right knee. He has so far played only two of the team's five games, both off the bench and for less than 22 minutes.

Memphis Grizzlies 125-110 Sacramento Kings

Desmond Bane proved that the Grizzlies could trust him in sharing the offensive burden with Ja Morant by going 6-for-8 from deep to drop game-high 31 points at the Golden 1 Center. Having scored 69 points in the past two games, Banes made the opponents pay for double-teaming Morant or closing in to protect the paint and rebounds.

De'Aaron Fox carried on his good form of individual attack to go 11-for-19 from the field and get 27 points for the Kings on Thursday night. He has averaged 30.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 5.8 assists in the past four games. He even drained 2.8 triples at 42.3 percent of FG rate per game. Nonetheless, the Kings lost all of those four games.