Heat lose spark without James; go down 130-102 against the Nuggets
On the road to greatness there shouldn’t be any excuses. Miami Heat had a pretty decent one on Thursday night though.
There was no LeBron James.
In a game that was billed as a showdown of superstars, the Nuggets sent the Heat packing to their second straight loss with a 130-102 home win. J.R. Smith stole the show with eight three-pointers, as he scored a game-high 28 points off the Denver bench.
Miami Coach Erik Spoelstra played it safe by resting his ace sharp-shooter LeBron James, who suffered an ankle sprain while playing against the Los Angeles Clippers last night. James Jones made the starting line-up in his absence. However, with James reduced
to watching the game from the sidelines, the Miami offence lost its spark. All of a sudden the 25.4 points, 7.0 rebounds and 7.2 assists that Miami usually get from the starting forward turned into six points, zero rebounds and one assist.
In LeBron’s absence, all of Miami’s hopes were pinned on a big night from Wade, but a hustling Nuggets back-line showcased some brilliant post defence to check Wade. Consequently, he only managed 16 points on a 7-of-19 shooting from the field. With Wade
misfiring, Chris Bosh scored 24 points for Miami, who lost back-to-back games for the first time since dropping three straight in late November 2010.
Wade though was of the view that the alarm bells should not go off as yet.
“It’s part of the NBA season,” Dwyane Wade said. “Some nights you’re just going to struggle and you’re not going to have it.”
Seven Denver players featured in double figures as the Nuggets gave the Heat a dose of their own medicine. On the night, the Nuggets beat the Heat in every department of the game. Miami were out-rebounded 50-41, had 16 turnovers as compared to the Nuggets’
nine, got thrashed 5-14 in the fast break points and lost out 34-50 on the points in the paint.
First Quarter
Miami started the match strongly, outscoring the Nuggets persistently for the first eight minutes. The Nuggets though, slowly closed the gaps in the defence, as they started to assert their authority on the match. The first half finished with the Nuggets
leading by 26-23 and they never looked back after that.
Second Quarter
The second quarter proved to be the turning point of the match. The Heat were outmanoeuvred 34-20 in that period and made just eight shots. Although their field-goal percentage for the quarter wasn't horrible (44.4 percent, 8-of-18 shooting), the problem
was turnovers. The visitors committed six of them in the quarter, and the Nuggets led by the speed and fearlessness of Ty Lawson, turned those into seven points.
Denver started the second quarter with a 13-4 spurt, and then complemented it with another 7-0 run, as they started to pull away with the game. Miami desperately tried to counter but they missed more than they netted, as the teams headed to the locker-room
with the score in Denver’s favour at 60-43.
Third Quarter
Wade and Bosh tried to turn the tide at the start of the second half, but Anthony and Kenyon Martin countered from the other end to make it 70-52, with less than ten minutes left in the third quarter. Afflalo and Nene took over after that, as the duo combined
for 15 points in a 17-6 spurt to spark the Nuggets to an 89-62 lead. Anthony followed with a 7- point unanswered run, which he capped with a thunderous jam to extend the lead to 96-64; their highest of the match.
Fourth Quarter
Staring at a 30 point deficit entering the ultimate quarter, the Miami offence finally came to life with a 14-6 run. It was too little too late though, as the home team rattled off another 9-0 spurt to pull away for good. Smith rounded off an excellent night
for the Nuggets by pulling out four three-pointers in the last six minutes, as the Nuggets beat the Heat 130-102.
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