Terry Rozier’s Heat transition hasn’t been easy, but worth it: ‘Who the hell wants it easy?’

The past two months have been a whirlwind for guard Terry Rozier.

Since the Charlotte Hornets traded Rozier to the Miami Heat on Jan. 23, he has already endured the Heat’s longest losing skid since 2008, gone through a 4-of-26 (15.4 percent) three-point shooting slump and missed some time because of a sprained right knee. In other words, the transition to the Heat has been rough at times.

But moments like the one Rozier produced Wednesday night make it all worth it, as he delivered in the clutch to score nine points in the final 1:24 of the game to lead a rally and lift the Heat (38-31) to a much-needed 107-104 win over the Cavaliers in Cleveland. With the victory, the Heat closed its four-game trip at 3-1 as it fights to avoid the NBA’s play-in tournament in the final weeks of the regular season.

“It’s a process when things happen at midseason, when you change teams and move to a different city and try to acclimate as quickly as you possibly can,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, with the team back in Miami to begin an important four-game homestand on Friday against the New Orleans Pelicans (8 p.m., Bally Sports Sun). “He didn’t want to step on anybody’s toes. But this is why we wanted him here, he’s a great clutch performer, and he’s been that way his entire career.”

With some of the Heat’s top offensive weapons out — such as Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson — Rozier stepped into a bigger offensive role Wednesday and created his first signature moment as a member of the Heat.

It began with the Heat trailing the Cavaliers by four points with 1:34 left in the fourth quarter.

Rozier started his game-winning run by hitting a step-back three from the left wing while being fouled by Cavaliers forward Isaac Okoro. Rozier made the free throw to complete the four-point play and tie the score at 100 with 1:24 remaining.

“I was just trying to shake Okoro off, trying to give him a step-back or something like that because he does a great job of guarding,” Rozier said of that shot. “Then he fouled me, so that was even better.”

After the Heat (Jimmy Butler fadeway jumper) and Cavaliers (Jarrett Allen dunk) traded baskets to tie the score at 102 with 31.9 seconds to play, Rozier came through in the clutch again.

Rozier drilled another step-back three over Okoro — this one from the right wing with a side-step incorporated to create more space. This big shot put the Heat ahead by three points with 14.5 seconds left.

The Cavaliers then cut the Heat’s lead to one with 3.7 seconds to play and intentionally fouled Rozier to preserve the clock. Rozier made both free throws to push the Heat’s lead back up to three with 2.8 seconds remaining, sealing the win for the Heat as the Cavaliers missed a last-second heave.

“The step-back, I put a lot of work into that,” said Rozier, who turned 30 on Sunday. “The side-step, I put a lot of work in over the summer. That’s one of my favorite shots. When I’m doing that, I’m kind of in my bag.”

Rozier was definitely in his bag on Wednesday, finishing the win with 24 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the field, 5-of-6 shooting from three-point range and 3-of-3 shooting from the foul line. He scored 11 points in the fourth quarter, with nine of those points coming in the final 84 seconds of the game in front of a large group of family and friends in his hometown of Cleveland.

“We needed another guy that could make plays and create something out of nothing,” Spoelstra said. “That’s what he basically did those last two possessions. He ended up scoring nine points in whatever, a minute. But the step-back three when he got fouled, we were kind of jammed up on that play. And the step-back going to his right, similarly it was end of the clock. Those plays are usually reserved for Jimmy. But it was very encouraging for all of us just to have another guy that can make a big play in a pressure moment.”

But Spoelstra was critical of one aspect of Rozier’s performance on Wednesday.

“Terry was 5 for 6 on threes,” Spoelstra said. “One of the first things I told him was, ‘What if you would have shot 10 to 12?’ His head coach wants him to be that aggressive, his teammates want him to be that aggressive, Jimmy and Bam want him to be that aggressive. If he would have gotten 10 or 12 up, this might not have been close down the stretch.”

This has been the Heat’s message to Rozier since he arrived in late January: Be aggressive.

After playing as a high-usage guard who averaged 23.2 points on 18.3 field-goal attempts per game with the Hornets this season prior to the trade, Rozier has averaged 15.7 points on 14.3 field-goal attempts per game through his first 22 appearances with the Heat. Rozier’s usage rate (an estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player while on the court) is also down from a career-high 26.8 percent with the Hornets this season to 23 percent with the Heat.

It’s not a surprise that Rozier’s volume of shots and usage rate have dipped since joining the Heat. It was actually expected after going from a Hornets team that relied on his shot creation to a Heat team that needs him to complement Adebayo, Butler and Herro, but Rozier’s new Heat teammates and coaches believe there’s room for him to do more.

“It means everything,” Rozier said of that push to shoot more. “The guys that you’re going to war with, that you’re around daily really truly believe in you. It’s crazy because Spo has been trying to tell me to get up as many threes as I can when I first got here. So it’s just a matter of time that it’s going to happen.”

It happened Wednesday in the final minutes of the fourth quarter when the Heat needed it most, with Rozier using his off-the-dribble game to create offense for himself during the most important possessions of the game.

“This is why we went after him,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat trading a lottery-protected first-round pick and guard Kyle Lowry to the Hornets to acquire Rozier. “... We have a bunch of guys that really thrive in those moments. We know that we go to Jimmy a lot for a lot of good reasons. But we wanted, especially while Tyler is out right now, we want to have another guy that’s special, that can create something out of nothing.”

Rozier’s midseason transition to the Heat hasn’t been easy, but it has still been everything he hoped it would be.

“It’s what every competitor, what every true competitor in my position would want,” Rozier said. “Nothing has been easy. But who the hell wants it easy? Because at the end of the day, I think it’s going to pay off in the long run and you’re going to appreciate times like this.”