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LeBron James and Chris Bosh each scored 28 points and Dwyane Wade added 20 to spark defending NBA champion Miami to a 21st consecutive victory in a 107-94 rout of Milwaukee on Friday. |
The Heat have the third-longest win streak in NBA history and can match the second-best run, 22 in a row by the 2007-08 Houston Rockets, by winning Sunday at Toronto. The 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers set the record of 33 wins in a row.
James also contributed 10 rebounds and seven assists while Wade had nine assists and seven rebounds as Miami’s three stars combined to make 32-of-57 shots from the field.
The Heat, the only NBA team to have beaten every other club this season, have not lost in six weeks, since falling on February 1 at Indiana. And they showed how much they have improved since a 104-85 December loss to the Bucks.
“We were a totally different team at that point,” James said. “We’re much better now. We should be. We should be better than we were in December.”
Miami went through some tense moments when Wade fell hard to the floor after a layup attempt was blocked in the first period. But Wade returned and the Heat rolled to a 52-41 half-time edge on the way to their ninth road win in a row.
Turkish forward Ersan Ilyasova had 26 points and 17 rebounds for the Bucks, who lost their third game in a row, while Brandon Jennings scored 21 points in a losing cause.
Elsewhere, Dwight Howard scored 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds while Kobe Bryant went scoreless in limited minutes due to an ankle injury as the Los Angeles Lakers beat Indiana 99-93 on Friday.
The Lakers, battling with Utah for the last Western Conference playoff berth at 35-32, dropped the Central division-leading Pacers to 40-25 thanks to solid play from Howard, 18 points from Steve Blake and 17 from Antawn Jamison.
But the main concern was Bryant’s condition as he tested a sprained left ankle. The Lakers’ playmaker suffered the injury in the last seconds of a loss Wednesday to Atlanta and decided he wanted to try and play only two days later.
Bryant played the entire first quarter, going 0-for-4 from the field, but did not return to the game, going scoreless over at least 12 minutes for the first time in an NBA game in 15 years.