Miami Heat cruise to fourth-straight win
The Miami Heat are starting to get into the groove after they posted their fourth-straight win of the season with a dominating 129-97 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday 2 November
at the American Airlines Arena.
Dwyane Wade spearheaded Miami’s offensive attack with his 26 points, while two-time Most Valuable Player LeBron James added 20 points and dished out a game-high 12 assists, which is the new
franchise-record in assists by a Heat forward.
"Just taking what the defence gives me," James said. "I think D-Wade carried the scoring load in the first half, and when you have that, you don't have to worry about scoring as much. I just
tried to attract as much defence as possible. I know there's not one guy that can stop me from getting to anywhere on the floor."
After struggling in the season-opening loss against the Boston Celtics on 26 October, Wade has been on fire and shot 12-for-17 tonight for the Heat, who won their last four games by an average
margin of 22.8 points.
"There are only five players on the court," said Wade, who scored 25 points for the first time while playing less than 25 minutes. "You can't cover the whole floor. You leave somebody to
do something and I was able to do something for the team."
James, on the other hand, impressed head coach Erik Spoelstra with his terrific court-vision, dishing out assist to eight different Heat players, and the third-year coach is considering playing
James more on the point guard position.
"What I saw tonight out of LeBron was a high IQ game," said Spoelstra on James, who played with a sore leg. "He managed and dissected the game with his mind. He wasn't 100 percent tonight,
but was able to make plays and really set up guys with wide-open shots."
James Jones also sizzled as the sharp-shooting forward chipped in 17 points on an impressive 5-for-9 clip from beyond-the-arc, while Eddie House added 15 points and was 4-for-4 from the three-point
region.
Kevin Love paced the Timberwolves with his 20 points and six rebounds, while Sebastian Telfair and Wesley Johnson chipped in 13 points apiece, but their defence allowed Miami to tally their
highest-scoring game this season on 58.2 per cent shooting from the field.
Rookie centre Nikola Pekovic added 12 points, while Michael Beasley chipped in 11 points for Minnesota, who were just down by six points, 50-44 with five minutes left before halftime, but
allowed Miami to unleash a huge 44-22 run in the next 16 minutes of the game.
Beasley, who played in Miami for the first time since the off-season trade that sent him to the Timberwolves, had a great start before falling awkwardly to the floor in the second period
and he never came back to play again.
"It's unfortunate," said Minnesota coach Kurt Rambis on Beasley, who will be doubtful for the next game against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday 3 November. "Right now we don't have the luxury
of having someone like him, a starter, being out of the ballgame."
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