NBA Recap: Miami Heat narrowly edge Orlando Magic, 104-100
The Eastern Conference Player of the Month for January, LeBron James posted a NBA season-best 51 points including a team-record 23 points in the first quarter, as the Miami Heat beat the Southeast Division-rival, Orlando Magic, 104-100 on Thursday night.
James also collected 11 rebounds and eight assists for Miami, which has won four straight games. Dwyane Wade scored 15 points and Chris Bosh poured in 13 points for the victors.
"Just playing this team got me going," James said. "We understand that it wasn't just any regular-season game. There were a lot of things said about us in the offseason that came from this organization. So we just wanted to come in here and play to our abilities
and make a statement."
Jameer Nelson led Magic with 22 points, six rebounds and six assists. Dwight Howard chipped in 17 points and 16 rebounds while Jason Richardson scored 18 points for Orlando, which lost for the fourth time in its last six games and fell behind 2-1 in the
season series with Heat.
"His numbers say that he's a pretty mediocre jump shooter, and tonight he was a great jump shooter. We did a good job keeping him out of the paint," Orlando head coach Stan Van Gundy said of James.
James completely owned the first quarter of the game, but Magic managed to stay close. James opened the scoring with a 14-foot pull-up jumper just 27 seconds into the play.
After a short time, Bosh made 4 consecutive free throws prior to the moment when James hit two shots to give Heat 8-2 lead. James notched next 14 Miami points before James Jones' trey for a 25-14 edge with three minutes left in the first quarter.
Miami extended its lead to 45-35 past the midway mark of the second quarter.
With less than three minutes left in the third period, Howard hit a free throw to pull Orlando within 70-63.
Miami scored the final nine points of the third quarter to get a 79-63 lead. The flurry started with James’ three-point play and Joel Anthony capped it with a slam.
With over eight minutes to play in the fourth quarter, Heat used a 9-0 run to enhance its lead to 88-65 on Wade’s jumper.
Orlando had five three-pointers in the last four minutes. With less than two minutes to play, Gilbert Arenas’ 3-pointer cut the gap to 94-88. But James’ trey with the shot clock winding down gave Heat a 97-88 cushion.
With 51 seconds left, Richardson’s 3-pointer cut the lead to 98-91. Nelson’s layup with 28 ticks to play trimmed it to 98-93. Nelson then hit a pair of free throws to make it a five-point contest with 22.5 seconds to play.
James made a pair of free throws to give Heat a 103-97 lead with just 15.1 seconds left in the game. Things got tense for Miami when Nelson hit a 3-pointer with 9.4 seconds to go. Miami lost the ball on the ensuing inbounds pass, but Orlando failed to tie
the game on its next possession. Wade made 1-of-2 from the foul line to provide the final margin.
“We just let our guard down,” James said. “We can’t do that as a veteran ball club. You can say that about a young team. We came in (the locker room) and you could tell by the look on the guys’ faces that we weren’t satisfied with the way we finished the
game out. That’s always a good sign. It’s wasn’t just ‘Let’s celebrate.’”
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