Dwyane Wade shines as Miami Heat subdue Orlando Magic 91 – 81 – NBA Recap
The Miami Heat secured an important win over Eastern Conference rivals the Orlando Magic on Sunday. The Heat were superior for the majority of the game at the American Airlines Arena and in the end ran out comfortable winners at 91 – 81.
Heat super star Dwyane Wade was on fire for the game, leading all scorers with 31 points. Wade, who connected on 13-of-25 from the field, also had 6 rebounds and 4 assists to his name. Dwyane hasn’t been as intense as he was tonight for a long time, and
the player revealed he made a conscious effort to get going in this game.
"I was very aggressive. I'm trying to do what I'm able to do to help us win. I felt that at certain times in the game I wasn't aggressive, so I wanted to get aggressive."
Another key component for the Heat was the play of power forward Chris Bosh. Bosh scored 23 points and grabbed 7 rebounds. LeBron James rounded things up with 14 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists.
LeBron was full of praise for Bosh after the game.
"He's the biggest piece of our team," James said of Bosh. "And when he's going, we're very dangerous. ... That's what it was all about tonight."
He also insisted he didn’t mind not scoring bucket loads every night, saying he concentrated on all aspects of his game.
"If I'm not getting going it scoring, it's time to focus on something else," James said. "I try to be a complete basketball player."
Dwight Howard was once again the shining light for Orlando Magic. The mercurial centre led his team in scoring, 18 points, and in rebounds, 11. Three other players made it into double digits for the Magic, but none of them made a significant impact.
Other than their struggles on offence, it was an inept defensive display that angered Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy, especially early on in the game. Miami got off briskly and an early 7 – 0 burst put them up at 13 – 7. Orlando put up some numbers of their
own but continued to leak points throughout the first quarter, ending up trailing at 31 – 22.
The second quarter didn’t have many twists and turns until a 7 – 0 spurt from the Magic got them to within 3 points of the Heat, 42 – 39. They went on to level things at 47 – 47 but Miami finished the first half ahead, 50 – 47.
Both sides upped the ante on defence after the break, resulting in a very slow paced third segment. The scores remained close and only 33 points in total were netted before the quarter came to an end at 67 – 63, Miami still ahead.
Chasing Miami down in the final 12 minutes was hard enough, but it became a near impossible task after a 7 – 0 sprint took the Heat’s lead into double digits at 84 – 73. Orlando pretty much gave up after that and the game ended 91 – 81 to Miami.
Tags: