Big Three’s balanced attack leads Miami Heat past New Jersey Nets
After a lacklustre performance during their season-opener, the Miami Heat’s superstar trio is starting to get into the groove as they led the Miami Heat to a 101-78 win against the New Jersey
Nets on Sunday 31 October in Newark.
LeBron James led the Heat’s balanced attack with his 20 points, seven assists, and seven rebounds, while Dwyane Wade racked up 17 points, seven assists, and six rebounds.
Chris Bosh, who struggled in their first three games, added 18 points for the Heat, who won their third-straight game after dropping their season-opener against the Boston Celtics.
"The balance is what we are here together for, to have an opportunity to make the game easy on everyone and we're doing it," Wade said. "We're playing great team basketball and we're still
not where we want to be, but we're making sure everyone gets an opportunity."
The 26-year old, Bosh, who averaged only 11.3 points in their first three games on a combined 11-for-32 shooting, shot 8-for-10 from the field and showed the aggressiveness the Heat fans
wanted to see from him since signing during the off-season.
"When I watch other games and I'm not aggressive, we don't do as well on that certain possession, we either turn the ball over or we don't get a good shot because we're fighting the shot
clock," Bosh said.
Brook Lopez paced the Nets with his 20 points and five rebounds, while rookie Derrick Favors had another impressive game as the 2010 third-overall pick scored 13 points and grabbed a game-high
13 rebounds.
Devin Harris had 13 points and six assists and second-year guard Terrence Williams added 11 points for the Nets, who absorbed their first defeat of the season after winning against the Detroit
Pistons and Sacramento Kings in their first two games.
New Jersey started the game on the wrong foot and found themselves down by 11 points, 15-4, in the first four minutes of the game. The Heat capitalized on the Nets’ poor shooting as they
finished the quarter with a 29-18 lead.
Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who finished the game with ten points, joined the scoring parade in the second period, scoring Miami’s first four points, followed by a rim-rattling dunk from James, which
gave the Heat a huge 18-point lead and the Nets weren’t able to recover.
"I told my team during the course of the year that there will be two or three or four games where you're not very good, and this was one of them," Nets head coach Avery Johnson said. "We
weren't good from the start. We were stuck in the mud; we were stuck in second gear."
James, Wade, and Bosh only needed a combined 31 attempts from the field to lead the Miami Heat to their most impressive game since the pre-season.
Carlos Arroyo added 12 points, while Eddie House chipped in 11 points for the Heat, which reached the 100-point mark for the first time this year on 54 per cent clip from the field.
"When they get everyone involved like that they are obviously a tough team to beat. They got it going against us tonight," Nets forward Joe Smith said.
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