LeBron James and Dwayne Wade lead Miami Heat over Portland Trail Blazers - NBA Recap
Miami Heat were in action for the 1st time since All-Star weekend and they continued from where they left off, blazing past the Portland Trail Blazers 107-93 defeat.
LeBron James, who has scored more than 30 points in 14 games coming into this game, was on song and erupted with 38 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists and 5 steals on Thursday night.
"We had a big piece of our team out, so I definitely had to step up my game to bring home this win”. James said afterwards;
Dwyane Wade was equally impressive as he had a double-double with 33 points and 10 assists.
Portland coach Nate McMillan acknowledged LeBron and Dwyane’s supremacy.
"They have two great players over there. LeBron and Dwyane were on top of their games tonight. Our guys worked hard to try to force those guys to shoot the ball over the top. They did that, but (James and Wade) made them. It's
a tough matchup when you have guys like that who can score and are willing passers."
Mario Chalmers netted 12 and Reserve Udonis Haslem brought up the third double-double for Miami as he tallied 11 points and had 14 boards. Heat played without Chris Bosh, who had to attend a funeral in the family. It is expected
that he will miss the Friday night game as well.
Miami had their 9th straight win and are currently at a best 35 game start in franchise history after winning 28 and losing only 7.
Portland were led by LaMarcus Aldridge’s 20 points. Jamal Crawford had 18; Nicolas Batum netted 17; Wesley Matthews chipped in with 15 coming off the bench and Gerald Wallace scored 12 points as the Trail Blazers lost their second
in a row.
Portland opened the game with a 14-6 spurt but with James in action, scoring 12 in the frame, Miami tied the score at 18 apiece midway. Later on, Miami reeled off a 14-6 run to cap off the segment at 32-24.
The Trail Blazers reduced the gap to 34-31 with a 7-2 run early in the 2nd period stanza, but Miami continued to dominate and opened up 45-36 lead deep, before pulling off a huge 15-6 run to conclude the half at a 60-42
advantage.
Miami augmented their lead to 79-57 late into the 3rd period and entered the last 12 minutes with an 87-69 advantage.
Portland started the 4th quarter with an 11-4 to make it 91-80 inside the first four minutes, but only managed to get as close as 103-91 as they slumped to their 18th loss of the season.
Tags: