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LeBron James drained a jump shot with 15.1 seconds left on Saturday to seal a 101-99 victory over Orlando for NBA champions Miami, who rallied from a 16-point second-half deficit. |
NBA Most Valuable Player James ended with 22 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, as the Heat completed the sweep of the home-and-home series against their cross-state rivals. Miami dominated the Magic 120-92 on Wednesday.
Dwyane Wade, back in action after missing two games with a sore knee, scored 27 points and Chris Bosh scored 15 in the Heat’s sixth straight victory since they dropped a decision to Boston on November 9.
Power forward Glen Davis returned for the Magic and had 20 points in his season debut.
Davis hadn’t played since breaking a bone in his left foot on January 30. He needed two surgeries to repair the injury.
Stung by their big defeat on Wednesday, Orlando led for much of the night.
An 8-1 scoring run in the fourth quarter gave Miami an 89-88 lead with less than five minutes to play, their first advantage since early in the first quarter. It was all tied up at 99-99 when James came through with his decisive jumper over Aaron Afflalo.
Afflalo had a chance to tie it, but Bosh blocked the shot. Orlando’s Victor Oladipo grabbed the loose ball but was off target and James collected the rebound as time expired.
James scored in double figures for the 508th straight regular-season game, tying Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the fifth-longest such streak in NBA history. The record for double-digit scoring is 866 consecutive games by Michael Jordan.
“LeBron in space, and he’ll take care of the rest,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Miami’s last play.
“But the execution before that was extremely poor, very poor. And he just did what great players do. He was very relaxed, calm, got to a spot where he felt comfortable and shot a great in-rhythm jump shot that made all of us look better.”
“We know that they are a team that can get things going pretty quickly,” Magic coach Jacque Vaughn said.
Carmelo Anthony and the New York Knicks have problems that clearly extend beyond their home court. In a performance their coach described as “flat,” the Knicks absorbed their fifth straight setback Saturday night, a 98-89 loss to the host Washington Wizards.
Losers of six straight home games, the Knicks (3-9) began a four-game road trip, hoping to regain the rhythm that helped them win 54 games last season. Instead, their struggles continued with a bad third quarter that became the turning point.
When asked what happened, Anthony said, “I don’t even know ... We didn’t put a full 48 minutes together tonight. We played three-fourths of the game and in that one quarter, they took advantage of us.”
The Knicks are missing point guard Raymond Felton and defensive anchor Tyson Chandler due to injuries. But coach Mike Woodson also has issues with his healthy players.
“Flat,” Woodson said. “We played a great first half and we come out flat and it started out toward the end of the second quarter. We just got to get back to the basics and try to figure out how to put four quarters together because we are not doing that.”
John Wall scored 31 points and Poland’s Marcin Gortat added 16 and 17 rebounds for the Wizards (5-8), who have won three of their last four games.
“When we move (the ball) side to side and nobody cares who shoots the ball, we move it to the open guy, and the open guy takes the open shot,” Washington coach Randy Wittman said. “It’s nice, it really is.”
The Knicks started well and opened a 50-41 lead late in the first half on a basket by Anthony, who had 23 points and 12 rebounds. But Gortat had two layups to cut the deficit to 52-49 at halftime.
The Wizards took that momentum into the third quarter, outscoring the Knicks, 27-17. All of New York’s baskets were jumpers, and they did not get to the free throw line.
The Knicks got within 81-78 on a basket by Anthony with 8:11 remaining, but Martell Webster made a pair of three-pointers to help rebuild the margin to 89-80.
The Knicks made just three baskets in the final seven minutes and got no closer than seven points. Overall, they shot 44 percent (36-of-82) and attempted just 15 free throws, making six.
“It’s a number of things that we aren’t doing right as a team and we have got to change those things,” said Woodson.
Webster scored 19 points and Bradley Beal added 18 for the Wizards. J R Smith scored 15 points and Amar’e Stoudemire added 12 for the Knicks, who head west for games against Portland, the Los Angeles Clippers and Denver.
“Guys feel like they should be playing better, feel like we should be playing better as a team,” Anthony said. “Guys can easily lose confidence in a situation like this.”
