A recent surge has helped the Miami Heat survive the NBA's most miserable road stretch this season, though they will likely still welcome the final game with open arms.

The Heat finish a grueling month-long stint with Friday night's visit to the Charlotte Hornets, who may again be without their leading scorer.

Miami's current stretch that dates back to Jan. 8 would be considered one monster road trip if not for home contests on Jan. 19 and 31. The rest of the 29-day period is filled with 14 road games.

The Heat (28-22) opened 2-7 but have won five of their last six games, including victories in four of five away from home. They close a three-game road trip at Southeast Division foe Charlotte before playing five of six at home.

The latest trip started with Tuesday's 115-102 loss at Houston that snapped Miami's season-high four-game winning streak. The Heat surrendered a season-high point total as the Rockets shot 52.4 percent, but they returned to their winning formula in Wednesday's 93-90 victory at Dallas.

Miami held the Mavericks to 39.1 percent shooting.

"It was a much better response to who we want to be on the road," coach Erik Spoelstra said. "Coaches love these kind of games. Our confidence was in our feeling that we could get stops on the other end. That has to be who we become every single night."

The Heat are 14-1 when allowing 90 points or fewer, and 18-1 when opponents shoot 41 percent or worse.

Hassan Whiteside's presence in the middle helps. With Whiteside sidelined for six games due to a left hip injury, opponents averaged 98 points - up from the league's second best mark of 95.8 - but he immediately made an impact in his return against Dallas with 10 points, nine rebounds and five blocks in 17 minutes. Whiteside leads the league with 163 blocks.

Charlotte (24-25) has not had much luck scoring against Miami during a 3-19 stretch in this series. The Hornets have averaged 90.5 points during that time, though they have split the last six games while winning three in a row at home.

They failed to reach 100 points in this season's first two meetings, but won the second 99-81 in Charlotte on Dec. 9 - fueled by Nicolas Batum's triple-double of 10 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists. Batum has missed four games over the last two weeks with a toe injury, but the Hornets have won all four during a 5-2 stretch.

He was back in the starting lineup for Wednesday's 106-97 win over Eastern Conference-leading Cleveland to open a four-game homestand, though it was the absence of Kemba Walker that was of higher interest to the Hornets.

Walker missed his first game of the season with a sore left knee, and he is listed as questionable for Friday. He leads the Hornets with 20.2 points per game.

Jeremy Lin helped pick up the slack against the Cavaliers, finishing with 24 points, eight assists and five rebounds, and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist had 11 points and 13 boards in his third game back from offseason shoulder surgery.

''Kemba, honestly, is irreplaceable. We all know that,'' Lin said. ''(But) we feel like if everyone can chip in a little bit, we can try to make up for his absence.''

Walker cut off a reporter's question at Friday's practice when asked if he will sit out the final four games before the All-Star break.

"No," he said. "No. I mean, no. No."