Watch: Thompson slams Herro in final seconds of Rockets loss

With the Heat preparing to inbound the ball, leading by five points with 35.7 seconds to go, Thompson and Herro went chest-to-chest struggling for position. Then Thompson escalated things by throwing Herro to the ground. A scrum erupted, and when it was over, four players and two coaches had been ejected.

Thompson’s ejection was obvious, while Herro seemed to be tossed either for yelling at Thompson or simply to cool things down with the game nearly decided. 

The officials also ejected Miami’s Terry Rozier and Houston’s Jalen Green for “escalating” the fight, and Rockets coaches Ime Udoka and Ben Sullivan. According to the pool report, Udoka and Sullivan were tossed for “unsportsmanlike comments” toward Davis.

They weren’t the only Rockets who got tossed. Seconds earlier, Rockets guard Fred VanVleet was ejected for bumping into referee Marc Davis while arguing a five-second violation on an inbounds play where he tried to call timeout. The contact may or may not have been intentional — Davis thought it was — but touching a referee at all is an automatic ejection.

The eventual result was two Nikola Jovic technical free throws and a 104-100 win for the Heat, with the margin looking artificially close after a meaningless Dillon Brooks three-pointer at the buzzer.

Officiating clearly frustrated the Rockets Sunday, but they may have already been upset by their own shooting. After VanVleet’s layup gave Houston a 92-85 lead, they missed their next 11 attempts. 

Brooks hit a layup, and the Rockets missed their next four shots. From the 8:10 mark in the fourth quarter to the parade of ejections at 0:35, Houston shot 1-for-15 and were outscored 14-2.

Herro scored 27 points before his ejection and the Heat won for the third time in their last four games, all without Jimmy Butler. As long as Herro avoids a suspension, and the body slam didn’t hurt him too badly, things are looking up for Miami. Even when Herro and Rozier get their fines.