SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- After years of being an NBA playoff staple, the Miami Heat are now measuring their progress by small steps.

To hear Heat coach Eric Spoelstra, his team took a significant one Wednesday. Miami, reeling from news that second-year forward Justise Winslow won't play again this season, rallied after letting a 19-point second-half lead evaporate and beat the Sacramento Kings 107-102 at the Golden 1 Center.

"We got pushed, and we felt all the emotions of building a 19-point lead, giving it up and having to execute again," Spoelstra said. "We've been talking about this for a while now, but particularly this trip, but we want to be able to take the next step forward in clutch games, close games down the stretch. We want to be better, more disciplined and make plays."

Tyler Johnson scored 23 points, and Goran Dragic added 19 for Miami (11-26), which ended a six-game losing streak despite going scoreless for a 4:17 stretch and playing without usual starters Hassan Whiteside and Winslow.

The Heat, decimated by injuries all season, announced before the game that Winslow will have surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder and likely will miss the rest of the season.

"We want to be better, more disciplined, and make plays in games like this," Spoelstra said. "We did that tonight."

Johnson was at the forefront as Miami did all of those things in the final 9:29 after squandering an 87-68 third-quarter lead. Johnson's 3-pointer with 6:14 put Miami ahead 94-93 after a 25-4 Sacramento run, and the Heat never again relinquished the lead.

Johnson finished with 23 points and scored eight of Miami's final 16 points down the stretch. He nearly lost the ball twice while dribbling on the decisive possession, once the ball was knocked away and once when he dribbled off his knee. But he recovered, drove the key and converted despite being hammered by the Kings' Matt Barnes.

But Johnson made his biggest play on defense, blocking Barnes' layup with 3:19 to go and keeping the Heat ahead 99-95.

"I was just trying to make his shot difficult," Johnson said. "I feel I've gotten a lot better at the timing on trying to block shots."

Garrett Temple, Ty Lawson, Arron Afflalo each scored 15 points off the bench for the Kings (15-20), but leading scorer DeMarcus Cousins scored a season-low 13 on 4-for-15 shooting. Sacramento opened a season-high seven-game homestand by losing for the third time in four games.

"It's the most disappointed I've been the entire season," Temple said. "We had a good win in Denver (on Tuesday) and we come in facing a depleted Miami team. Not to take away from them, but this is a game we have to win."

Instead, they allowed a Miami team averaging 98.2 points a game entering the contest score 64 in the first half on 63 percent shooting. Miami opened up the second half with a 23-9 run and appeared ready to cruise.

But the Kings erased that by scoring 19 straight points bridging the third and fourth quarters and eventually extended that run to 25-4 and led 93-91 with under three minutes left.

Johnson made two 3-pointers, the first put Miami back ahead 94-93, and the second gave the Head a 102-97 lead. Two misses by Cousins at the other end, one a layup and one a 3-pointer, cemented the result.

"You think about the little plays at the end that are always important," Kings coach Dave Joerger said. "Some of them we didn't get done. If you have to play down from 19, those mean a lot more."

Dion Waiters returned from a 20-game absence caused by a torn muscle in his thigh. Waiters scored four points in 10 minutes for Miami.

NOTES: Winslow, the second-year small forward, played 34 minutes per game and averaged 10.9 points for Miami. He was injured after becoming entangled with Boston Celtics center Al Horford on Dec. 30. ... Kings coach Dave Joerger told reporters recently that he wants to give more playing time to rookie G Malachi Richardson, but he hasn't gotten off the bench in Sacramento's past two games. ... C Willie Reed's 22-point, 16-rebound game at Phoenix on Tuesday was one of the best ever by a Heat rookie. The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reported that Reed joined teammate F Hassan Whiteside and former Miami F Kurt Thomas as the only players in franchise history with a 20-15 double-double within their first 57 games. ... Sacramento F Rudy Gay (hip flexor) has played in only one of Sacramento's 10 games since Dec. 12. ... Miami has used 15 starting lineups this season, the second-most in the NBA. Only the New Orleans Pelicans (16) have resorted to more. The Heat also have played back-to-back games eight times already this season.