Yes, the streakbusters struck again.

Robinson scored 27 points, Jimmy Butler added 21 points and a career-high-tying 14 rebounds, and the Bulls beat Miami 93-86 on Monday night in Game 1 of the teams’ Eastern Conference semifinal series. The team that snapped Miami’s 27-game winning streak in the regular season — the second-longest in NBA history — found a way to topple the champs again, this time ending a run of 12 straight Heat victories overall.

“I’ve played on some tough teams,” Robinson said. “But this one, there’s something a little different, something special about this group.”

A seven-point deficit midway through the fourth wasn’t enough to doom the Bulls, who finished the game on a 10-0 run in the final 1:59. And to think, the Bulls weren’t anywhere near full strength. Kirk Hinrich was out again with a calf injury. Luol Deng isn’t even expected to rejoin the team until Tuesday, after dealing with an illness apparently so severe that a spinal tap — and other tests since — were needed to rule out things like meningitis.

“So proud of my team man, this bed might be good luck after all,” Deng wrote on Twitter after the game, with a photo of him in a hospital bed.

Oh, and Derrick Rose remains sidelined, as he’s been since April 2012.

No problem. The Heat are 41-3 in their last 44 games — with two of those losses to the Bulls, who are now 3-2 against Miami this season.

“I think when you’re facing adversity, you have to be mentally tough,” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said. “But this is just one game. We have to play a lot better in our next one.”

LeBron James got his MVP trophy from Commissioner David Stern before the game, then struggled to a two-point first half before finishing with 24 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for Miami. Dwyane Wade added 14 for the Heat, who had no one else in double figures, finished shooting 40 percent from the floor and were outrebounded 46-32.

“I’m not stunned,” James said. “This is what the playoffs is all about. We’re going against a really good team.”

Miami was outscored 35-24 in the fourth, something that drew the ire of Heat coach Erik Spoelstra afterward.

“There’s no excuses,” said Spoelstra, whose team had not played in more than a week. “We’re not making any excuses for time off or anything else.”

If anyone could have made excuses, it was Robinson. He needed 10 stitches, five in his lip and five more inside his mouth, to close a nasty cut that came when he dove for a loose ball with James and struck his head on the court late in the first half.

And then not only did he play the whole second half, he scored 24 points in those 24 minutes, including the last seven points that finished the job for Chicago.

“He was born a scorer,” Miami guard Mario Chalmers said.

Joakim Noah scored 13 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for the Bulls, who got 12 from Taj Gibson and 10 from Marco Belinelli. Game 2 is Wednesday night in Miami.

“We’re not really a flashy team,” Gibson said. “We like to go out and do our job.”

A pair of three-point plays by James — one of them coming when he just broke through a tackle attempt by Butler and muscled the ball to the rim anyway — gave Miami a 76-69 lead midway through the fourth quarter, the biggest deficit Chicago faced all night.

The Bulls were undeterred.

Coming off a Game 7 road win in Brooklyn two nights earlier just to get into a series with Miami, the Bulls just kept grinding. When Ray Allen made a 3-pointer to give Miami an 80-78 lead, Butler came back with one of his own to put the Bulls back on top. When the Heat went up by three after James made a free throw with 2:22 left, Belinelli connected for 3 — on a second-effort possession — to knot the game.

Then when Robinson connected on a 20-footer with 1:18 left, the Bulls had the lead and plenty of swagger.

Wade missed a 3-pointer on the next possession, Robinson drove the lane and scored with 45.5 seconds left, and suddenly the Bulls were up 90-86. James drove against Butler and tried a 12-footer that missed everything, the Bulls got the rebound, Robinson made a free throw to stretch the lead to five and the stunner was complete.

Game 1 to the Bulls.

“It’s all about being tough,” said Butler, who played all 48 minutes for the third straight game. “We’re always going to be the underdogs and we take pride in that. Everybody can overlook us, but we feel like we’re good enough to hang with a lot of these teams.”

It was a night that started with a celebration, James getting his MVP award from the commissioner.

“Thank you so much,” James said. “And let’s get ready to go.”

And with that, the game started.

Problem was, no one was ready to go.

The Heat missed their first seven shots — maybe rust really was a factor. It was 37-all at the half and James wore twice as many pairs of sneakers in the opening two quarters (two) as he had field goals (one). He had two points at the break, the lowest of his 120-game postseason career, on just 1 for 6 shooting.

He opened the second half with a 3-pointer, so the shoes were a quick fix.

But the Bulls were in for the long haul, and after James made the consecutive three-point plays to open a seven-point lead, Chicago answered with seven straight points, knotting the game at 76-all when Belinelli made a 3-pointer with just under 5 minutes left.

Momentum belonged to Chicago, and soon, so did the game.

“It’s just one game,” Belinelli said.
Game notes
James has played 885 regular-season and playoff games. He’s scored less than two points in a first half only twice, being shut out by Dallas on Oct. 31, 2007 and Dec. 20, 2010. He scored exactly two points on five other occasions before Monday. … Wade dove into the second row of seats to save an errant ball, and grimaced after appearing to hit his sore right knee. “I wish somebody would have grabbed me. That would have been kind of nice, especially at home,” Wade said. … The Bulls had 17 second-chance points on only nine offensive rebounds.

The post Bulls close game with 10-0 run to stun Heat in Game 1 appeared first on IdealCapper.

Durant scored 24 points and drew a rare offensive charging foul, and the Oklahoma City Thunder routed Harden and the Houston Rockets 120-91 on Sunday night in Game 1 of their playoff series.

Durant, who’s known more for his three NBA scoring titles than for stepping in the way of oncoming opponents, got in Harden’s way on a transition drive in the third quarter in a standout defensive effort for the Thunder against the league’s second highest-scoring offense.

“It was all about giving your all every possession,” Durant said.

Hours before going head-to-head with Harden, Durant said that “we’re not looking at him as a friend right now.” But even right before tipoff, the situation didn’t seem natural.

“It felt a little awkward just looking across there during the national anthem and seeing him with another team, but we’ve got to get past that. We’re competing against his team, and he wants to win so bad,” Durant said. “We know him personally, so we know how hard he competes and he knows how hard we compete.”

After letting Houston wipe away an 11-point deficit in the first half, the Thunder regained control with a 14-1 surge just before halftime and kept pouring it on.

Just after a fan nailed a half-court shot to win $20,000 in the break after the third quarter, Durant drove for a two-handed slam while getting fouled and Oklahoma City was soon up by 30.

“We didn’t have a rhythm as a team. I felt like it was basically one on five every time,” Harden said.

Harden, playing against the team that traded him away just before the season started, had 20 points but the Rockets were held 15 points below their regular-season scoring average while shooting 36 percent. Houston, which set a franchise record for 3-pointers during the regular season, finished 8 for 36 (22 percent) from behind the arc.

“We were trying to be solid on the defensive end,” Durant said. “We knew they were a great scoring team. We just tried to pack the paint and get out to their shooters. We had to make the second and third efforts, and I think we did that.”

Game 2 is Wednesday night in Oklahoma City.

“Believe it or not, I think this was good for us,” Harden said. “Losing like this was definitely good for us. Now we know how to play.”

“We really don’t have an excuse anymore,” said Jeremy Lin, one of three Houston starters making their first career playoff apperance. “We’ve gotten it out and played terrible all the way across the board — offensively, defensively. That one’s over with.”

The Thunder were already up by 23 when Larry Hill connected on the half-court shot and went bounding toward Oklahoma City’s huddle in celebration, getting congratulated by Thabo Sefolosha before the team’s bison mascot pulled him back away.

Durant’s dunk sparked a string of seven straight points for Oklahoma City, and Harden never even came off the bench in the fourth quarter. Coach Scott Brooks called timeout and pulled Durant a few moments later, and reserves finished out the game for the Thunder.

“We wanted to take care of our home court,” Durant said. “We didn’t do anything yet.”

Russell Westbrook ended up with 19 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds. Serge Ibaka chipped in 17 points and Kevin Martin, Harden’s replacement in the sixth man role, had nine of his 16 points in the fourth quarter with the game already in hand.

It was an impressive playoff opener for top-seeded Oklahoma City, which made it to the NBA Finals last season before losing to Miami in five games. The Thunder led by as much as 35 before Houston’s reserves cut into the lead in garbage time.

Harden didn’t get much help from the rest of his starting lineup, which features players with a total of three career playoff starts, all by center Omer Asik. None of the other starters scored in double figures and the unit went 17 for 50 from the field, with Harden making just six of his 19 attempts.

It was Houston’s first playoff game in four years.

“James, on this team, has to shoulder a ton of responsibilities for us and he’s been great all year long,” coach Kevin McHale said. “He’s had an all-pro type of year. … He’ll play better, just like everybody.

“We ask him to do an awful lot for us — handle the ball, score the ball, pass the ball, make plays. I think that he had it going there for a little bit, but it wasn’t James. It was us in general as a team. We never really caught a flow at all tonight.”

Oklahoma City scored the first six points of the game and opened a 13-2 lead as the Rockets failed to make a basket for the first 6 minutes of the game and started out just 1 for 13 from the field. Houston eventually settled in and charged back with a 13-2 push spanning the break between the first two quarters, with Chandler Parsons providing the final five points on a two-handed putback jam and a 3-pointer.

Patrick Beverley pulled the Rockets even at 38 with a transition 3-pointer from the right wing, but the Rockets couldn’t pull ahead before Oklahoma City’s next surge.

Sefolosha had a two-handed slam on a fast break and also assisted on Kendrick Perkins’ two-handed dunk during the burst, which extended Oklahoma City’s lead to 60-45 before Harden’s driving layup in the final second before halftime.

All but the first basket in the Thunder’s run came after Asik joined Parsons on the bench with three fouls apiece.

The Rockets never recovered.

Game Notes
The game ball got switched out in the second quarter after it went into the stands and a drink was spilled on it. … Harden scored a career-high 46 points in the Rockets’ only regular-season win against Oklahoma City, but said he didn’t gain any secrets from that performance to carry over into the playoffs. “I’m not going to lie. I was just making shots,” he said. … The Thunder improved to 18-5 in playoff games in Oklahoma City.

The post Kevin Durant scores 24 as Thunder blitz Rockets to take 1-0 lead appeared first on IdealCapper.

Detroit At Chicago
When: 7:00 PM ET, Sunday, March 31, 2013
Where: United Center, Chicago, Illinois
TV: 7 p.m. ET, Fox Sports Detroit, WGN (Chicago)
PREDICTION: Bulls 95, Pistons 88

Oddsmakers currently have the Bulls listed as 9-point favorites versus the Pistons, while the game’s total is sitting at 187.

Detroit coach Lawrence Frank called his team’s performance Friday against Toronto “embarrassing,” pointing particularly to a third quarter in which the Pistons were outscored 36-15. It wasn’t all bad for Detroit, though, as rookie Andre Drummond returned after missing 22 games because of a stress fracture in his lower back and scored 17 points in 19 minutes. The Pistons could be without another one of their solid young players, though, with guard Brandon Knight listed as doubtful after injuring his ankle against the Raptors.

Detroit lost its last outing, a 99-82 result against the Raptors on March 29. The Pistons failed to cover in that game as a 1.5-point favorite, while the 181 combined points took the game UNDER the total.

Team record: 24-49 SU, 32-41 ATS
Current streak: lost 2 straight games.

The total has gone UNDER in 5 of last 5 games when playing on the road against Chicago
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of last 5 games
is 5-12 ATS in its last 17 games
is 4-17-1 ATS in its last 22 games when playing Chicago

When playing on Sunday are 2-8
Before playing Toronto are 2-8
After playing Toronto are 5-5
After a loss are 1-9

The Bulls have held their own with some of their top players sidelined – Marco Belinelli (strained abdominal muscle), Richard Hamilton (back spasms) and Joakim Noah (foot) all sat out Saturday – but they missed having their stars down the stretch against Dallas, as the Mavericks overcame a 12-point deficit in the final four minutes. “This was a tough loss,” guard Kirk Hinrich told reporters. “We just didn’t finish it out.” Noah and Belinelli could return against the Pistons.

Chicago lost its last outing, a 100-98 result against the Mavericks on March 30. The Bulls covered in that game as a 5.5-point underdog, while the 198 combined points took the game OVER the total.

Team record: 39-32 SU, 33-38 ATS

is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games when playing Detroit
is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games when playing at home against Detroit
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of last 5 games when playing at home against Detroit
is 17-4-1 ATS in its last 22 games when playing Detroit

When playing on Sunday are 4-6
Before playing Washington are 7-3
After playing Dallas are 7-3
After a loss are 6-4

The post Detroit Pistons vs. Chicago Bulls Free Betting Pick & Matchup appeared first on IdealCapper.

Instead, New Orleans’ first overall draft choice sent the Boston Celtics out of the Big Easy with the sick feeling that accompanies a lost lead in the dying seconds.

Davis outreached Kevin Garnett and Jeff Green for a last-second tip-in, and the Hornets snapped a four-game skid with an 87-86 victory over the Celtics on Wednesday night.

“His first game-winner comes on night when he’s sick and puking and doesn’t feel his best,” Hornets coach Monty Williams said. “So kudos to him.”

Davis had missed the morning shootaround with an upset stomach. He was listed as a game-time decision and wound up with nine points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots in 28 minutes.

Ryan Anderson scored 21 points and Eric Gordon 18 for the Hornets. Gordon’s floater to win it in the waning seconds missed, but Davis followed up for the winner.

“I was really tired, but I knew my team needed me, so I was trying to fight through it,” Davis said. “I’m glad I did. It was a big win for us.”

Paul Pierce scored 11 of his 28 points in the last six minutes to nearly lead Boston back from a nine-point deficit, but missed a jumper with 16 seconds left that could have put the Celtics up by three.

Garnett, returning from a two game absence caused by a left thigh injury and the flu, scored 20 points to go with six rebounds, but took the blame after Boston’s second-straight loss for not picking Davis up in time.

“It was my block-out. I was trying to help Avery (Bradley)” defend Gordon’s drive, Garnett said. “That’s just when you’re trying to help a teammate and you’re reacting. … I’m acting off impulse as a big man to try to block shots and protect the basket and (Davis) took advantage.”

Davis said he was unaware of who stood in his way for the winning tip.

“I was just following like I was supposed to,” Davis said. “I just saw the ball. I wasn’t looking at nobody else.”

The Celtics got the ball back one last time with 0.3 on the clock, and Pierce inbounded to Garnett, who could not get off a turnaround jumper before the horn.

The loss dropped Boston into seventh in the Eastern Conference, 3½ games behind Brooklyn for the fourth seed, which carries with it home advantage in the first round of the playoffs. The Nets beat Dallas, while fifth-place Atlanta beat Milwaukee to pull 1½ games ahead of the Celtics.

Boston coach Doc Rivers said the Celtics got what they deserved, adding that he could see it coming late in the second quarter when Boston “went from being a solid, good-looking team to show time.”

“We started dancing around, stopped defending. You could see our guys laughing and joking,” Rivers said. “We don’t learn because we have done this three or four times this year.”

Green, coming off a career-high 43 points in Boston’s loss to Miami on Monday night, scored 13 points, all in the first half.

Boston had been in control much of the game and led by as many as 13 after Pierce’s 3 made it 60-47 early in the third quarter.

Then Boston slumped offensively, scoring only 12 in the period, and New Orleans whittled away.

The Hornets went on a 9-2 run that included dunks by Robin Lopez and Al-Farouq Aminu, and tied the game at 65 on Anderson’s free throws late in period.

The Hornets then surged into the lead early in the fourth quarter when Brian Roberts hit a driving layup and 3. Anderson later added six straight points to put New Orleans ahead 78-69.

The momentum changed once more when Pierce worked his way inside for a layup and Garnett followed a reverse layup, igniting a 10-0 run that included four more free throws from Pierce.

After Anderson restored New Orleans’ lead with a 3, Pierce tied it with a driving two-handed dunk and followed that with a 3 to put Boston up 84-81 with 2:34 left.

That gave Pierce 11 of 15 Boston points in a span of about three-and-a-half minutes, but he finished the game with a couple of missed mid-range jumpers, giving New Orleans just enough of a window to pull out the upset.

Boston led by as many as 12 in the opening half, taking a 50-38 lead on Garnett’s layup, and the Celtics led 55-45 at halftime.

Game notes
While Austin Rivers’ broken right hand prevented him from playing against the team his father coaches, the younger Rivers said he was able to take his father out for dinner at one of celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse’s New Orleans restaurants on Tuesday. “That’s the first time I’ve ever paid for my dad,” Austin Rivers said. “The bill came and I was ready to get up. … He looked at me like, `It’s your turn now.’ It feels good. You work hard. Finally you take care of somebody that has taken care of your whole life.” … The Hornets won the teams’ only other matchup this season, 97-78 in Boston on Jan. 16. … Boston fell to 12-21 on the road and wraps up its three-game road trip with games on Friday at Dallas and Saturday at Memphis.

The post Anthony Davis’ late tip-in lifts Hornets past Celtics appeared first on IdealCapper.

But LeBron James wouldn’t give up.

“That guy right there doesn’t want to lose in this building,” teammate Dwyane Wade said, nodding toward James, who left many angry Cavaliers fans behind when he bolted for Miami as a free agent three years ago. “Not tonight.”

James scored 25 points as the Heat overcame a 27-point deficit in the third quarter and won their 24th straight game, 98-95 over the short-handed Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night to extend the second-longest winning streak in NBA history.

The Heat are within nine games of matching the record of 33 consecutive wins held by the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers. Once believed to be untouchable, the mark is now within reach.

James and his teammates have insisted the record isn’t one of their goals, and for more than 30 minutes the defending champions seemed disinterested and on the verge of losing for the first time since Feb. 1. Miami trailed 67-40 with 7:44 left in the third quarter.

But behind the irrepressible James, who added 12 rebounds and 10 assists in 42 minutes, the Heat inched closer to history and matched the NBA’s biggest comeback this season, according to STATS.

“This was one of the most bizarre, unique days of my life with everything that happened,” said James, referring to a homecoming in which a fan ran onto the floor and the opening tip was delayed 35 minutes by a leaky scoreboard. “It also was one of the best comebacks I’ve ever been a part of.”

James had 14 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals in the fourth as Miami rallied to win for the second game in a row. The Heat were down 17 points — 13 in the fourth quarter — and stormed back to beat Boston 105-103 on Monday and surpass the 2007-08 Houston Rockets for the second-longest streak in NBA history.

“I knew there was a lot of time, so we never panicked,” James said. “We were down 27 with 18 minutes left. That’s a lifetime in basketball.”

Although the Cavs were missing All-Star guard Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters and Anderson Varejao — their top three scorers — they pushed Miami to the limit.

It wasn’t until James, playing his fourth game back in Cleveland since leaving, made two free throws with 4.7 seconds left that Miami could relax, but just a little. The Cavs had one last chance to tie it, but C.J. Miles was long with a 3-pointer in the final second, letting Miami off the hook.

Following the game, James stopped to sign a few autographs as he made his way to Miami’s locker room. This was much tougher than he and the Heat could have imagined. The win also completed a five-game road trip, dubbed “The Reunion Tour” by James because Miami visited Wade’s home in Milwaukee, Chris Bosh’s former team in Toronto and Ray Allen’s in Boston.

“The streak wasn’t on my mind, but us getting blown out was,” James said. “I was going to be the only guy to take an ‘L’ on the reunion tour.”

Mario Chalmers added 17 points and Wade had 11 for the Heat, who outscored the Cavs 30-18 in the fourth quarter and 64-40 in the second half.

Wayne Ellington had 20 points and Tristan Thompson 18 for Cleveland, which went from a stunning upset to blowing the biggest lead in a loss in franchise history.

“We knew it was coming,” Thompson said of the Heat’s comeback. “They were the NBA champions last season. They’re not going to lay down. Champions don’t lay down even when they’re down by 27. We knew they were going to make a push. Guys went out and made plays, so you have to give them credit.”

Down by nine to open the fourth, the Heat were up 95-86 with 3:02 left and seemed to have the Cavaliers on the ropes.

But Cleveland bounced back and closed to 96-95 on Thompson’s two free throws with 44 seconds to go. Wade then missed a jumper, but Ellington misfired on a step-back 23-footer with 5.2 seconds to go.

James was fouled and the reigning MVP, with a sellout crowd of 20,562 roaring, stepped to the line and dropped both free throws to make it 98-95.

Miles was contested on his final shot, and once it clanked off the rim, the Heat headed home with a chance to extend their streak to 25 on Friday against Detroit.

This game had a little of everything, including a fan running on the floor in the fourth quarter. The young man was wearing a T-shirt that said: “We Miss You, 2014 Come Back,” a reference to James’ possible free agency and return to Cleveland, where he played seven seasons.

James went out of his way and patted the fan on the head as security rushed him off the floor.

“He said he missed me and come back, please,” James said. “It happened once before in (Madison Square) Garden, so I wasn’t worried. There are metal detectors here, so we were OK. I embraced it.”

The start of the game was delayed because of a spill on the floor caused by condensation from a carbon dioxide container inside the scoreboard.

James scored eight straight points to open the fourth, hitting a 3-pointer to tie it 77-all. He then turned toward the crowd and delivered an icy stare, his way of saying, ‘OK, enough is enough.’

“When he made that one and turned to the crowd,” Wade said, “you knew it was coming.”

Game notes

Starting with the Cavs, Miami’s next 10 games are against opponents with a combined winning percentage of just .399. … The Heat play the Pistons and Charlotte at home before going to Orlando, Chicago, New Orleans and San Antonio. … It was the first time Miami overcame a 21-point halftime deficit to win. … The Cavs will wait a week before they evaluate Waiters, who has loose cartilage, and decide whether he needs surgery. Cleveland coach Byron Scott hopes his young guard comes back in the final month. “If he gets back, I’ll be thrilled to death,” Scott said. … Miami’s three wins over Cleveland this season have been by a total of nine points.

The post LeBron James posts triple-double as Heat rally, up streak to 24 appeared first on IdealCapper.

James scored 26 points, including a go-ahead layup after getting past DeQuan Jones with 3.2 seconds left, and the Heat scrambled late to beat the Orlando Magic 97-96 on Wednesday night and extend their franchise-record winning streak to 16 games.

“I had no intention of shooting another jumper,” James said.

He missed a pair of 3-pointers about 90 seconds earlier, so he went for the 3-footer instead. From the right wing, James drove diagonally through the lane, then used his left hand — after all, he is left-handed — for the basket that won it for Miami. It was the first time he came up with what became a game-winning basket in the final five seconds of a game since a 3-pointer beat the Magic in the 2009 playoffs, according to STATS LLC.

“This is tough,” Magic coach Jacque Vaughn said, after his team fell to 0-2 against Miami this season — the two losses by a total of three points. “You’ve got guys who battled, who really wanted to win this game and deserved to win this game.”

Dwyane Wade scored 24 points on 10-for-16 shooting — he’s now shooting 62 percent in his last seven games — and Chris Bosh added 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Heat, who blew a 20-point, second-half lead and then rallied from a five-point deficit in the final minutes.

Nik Vucevic had 25 points and 21 rebounds for the Magic, who got 16 points apiece from Jameer Nelson and Tobias Harris, 13 from Arron Afflalo and 12 from Maurice Harkless.

“They’re one of the best teams in the NBA, if not the best and we gave it our all,” Harris said. “They knew that. It’s just a matter of a couple of seconds that could have changed the game. It’s a tough loss for us but it’s the right step in the right direction.”

Vucevic now has two games of 20 rebounds or more in his career — both this season, and both against Miami. He had a 20-point, 29-rebound effort in a loss to the Heat on Dec. 31.

But he was one of three Magic players to foul out in the final minutes, as Orlando let a golden chance go awry.

The foul discrepancy in the game — 30 for the Magic, 17 by Miami — was a hot topic in the Orlando locker room afterward. The Magic went 10 for 12 from the foul line, Miami 27 of 31.

Perhaps the biggest two calls of the game came late, and both went Miami’s way, although the Heat didn’t like one of those at first.

Nelson hit a jumper with 1:36 left, giving the Magic a 96-93 lead. James missed two 3-pointers on the next Miami possession, and on the ensuing Miami trip, Harris drove from the left baseline but his basket was waved off, with Shane Battier beating him to the spot and drawing an offensive foul, Harris’ sixth of the night.

Battier said he had no hesitation about the charge.

“He is defined by winning plays,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He just continues to make them.”

Miami tried for the tie twice on the next trip, but Wade and Ray Allen missed 3-pointers. Bosh was fouled on a rebound — the sixth on Vucevic, making him the third Orlando player to reach the limit in the final minutes. Bosh made both free throws to get the Heat within one with 38 seconds remaining.

Al Harrington missed a wild 3-pointer, and James got the rebound to seal the stop Miami desperately needed. So with 12.6 seconds left, the Heat got the ball and a chance to win.

Spoelstra had told referees that if Miami got a stop, the Heat did not want a timeout. One was whistled anyway, and Spoelstra said that referees apologized for the miscommunication afterward. No matter — the play got set up, the ball went to James, and he delivered in the clutch.

Orlando had no timeouts, and only managed a 3-point try by Afflalo from near midcourt as time expired.

“It’s about getting W’s and trying to find a way not get L’s,” Wade said. “Tonight we found the way.”

The Heat came in with 44 wins, the Magic with 44 losses, and after two possessions of the second half the reigning NBA champions had a 20-point lead.

And then about one quarter later, they were losing.

Vucevic had 10 points and nine rebounds in the third quarter alone — the Heat, as a team, had four rebounds in the period — and the tide of the game totally turned in a matter of minutes. What was a 60-40 Miami lead got whittled down steadily, with the Magic getting within 15 after a jumper by Afflalo, then 10 on a hook shot by Vucevic, five on a 3-pointer by Harris and finally within 77-74 when Vucevic closed the quarter with two free throws.

Orlando didn’t stop there, either. Nelson made a contested 3-pointer to tie the game at 79-all with 10:29 left, and his three-point play about a minute later gave the Magic their first lead of the night.

Vucevic added back-to-back baskets, and suddenly, Orlando was up 86-81 with 8:29 left — meaning the Magic run, in about 14 minutes of actual playing time, was a 46-21 burst.

“Maybe it’s the way they defend,” Vucevic said. “They give me open looks and a chance to rebound a little bit more.”

Miami answered with the next six points to briefly re-take the lead, but Vucevic struck again with 5:03 remaining, getting a short shot off the glass to drop and stake the Magic to a 91-87 edge.

In the end, James was one play better.

“He took it into his own hands,” Spoelstra said.

Game notes

James was in double figures for his 200th straight regular-season game with the Heat, extending his franchise record. … Vaughn played against Miami 30 times in his career, his teams going 15-15. … The Heat have honored a military member who has returned home from a tour of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan before games in Miami for the past several seasons. Their honoree on Wednesday: Army 1st Sgt. Darrell Williams, who returned just two weeks ago from serving a tour in Afghanistan — and is the first cousin of Bosh’s wife, Adrienne Bosh.

The post LeBron James’ layup helps Heat extend win streak to 16 games appeared first on IdealCapper.

Irritated at his team’s shot selection.

Irritated at his team’s selfishness.

And especially irritated the Lakers needed to overcome a 20-point deficit to beat the NBA’s worst team.

“We have to play the right way,” Bryant said. “When we have shots available, we take them. If we don’t, move the ball on. It can’t be about individual touches. It can’t be about that.”

Still, the Lakers won.

Bryant shrugged off a scoreless first half — he attempted only two shots — to finish with 20 points, eight assists and seven rebounds and the Lakers improved to 4-2 on their road trip heading into Sunday’s game in Miami against the Heat.

Bryant didn’t come out for warmups to start the second half.

But he was there to provide the spark the lackluster Lakers needed in the third quarter. He scored 14 of his points in the final period, including a driving layup with 40 seconds left to push the lead to five and help seal the win.

“In the second half, I got in position where I could catch it and turn and shoot it a little bit,” Bryant said. “They were reluctant to double team because we started knocking down some shots. I think that makes the game a lot easier.”

Steve Nash and Earl Clark each had 17 points and Dwight Howard had 12 points, all in the first half, and 11 rebounds for the Lakers (24-27).

Howard played his second straight game despite nursing an injured right shoulder.

“Continuity,” Howard said when asked of the Lakers’ offensive woes. “We have to do a better job of spreading everything out and moving and getting everybody involved. When we do that, we are pretty good.”

Byron Mullens and Gerald Henderson each had 20 points for the Bobcats, who have lost six straight.

Charlotte led 71-51 in the third quarter, but the Lakers stormed back behind a 9-0 run. They cut the lead to one on a driving layup by Bryant with 6:06 left in the game and Antawn Jamison gave the Lakers their first lead with 4:46 remaining on a left-handed finger roll in the lane.

The Lakers took the lead for good at 92-91 when Jodie Meeks made a 3-pointer with 3:02 left in the game.

Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni wasn’t pleased with the overall effort, but liked that his team bounced back after a 116-95 loss to the Boston Celtics the night before.

“We just got to be able to put our earplugs in, or mufflers on, or blinders on,” D’Antoni said. “It’s like the Kentucky Derby with horses, just get those blinders on and just get out there and run.

“We have so much stuff going on out here that every little thing is blown to bits and whether it is right or wrong or blown out of proportion it is. But, it affects us. It is a distraction. It saps energy. We got to be able to just close that out somehow.”

The Lakers have been unpredictable this season, particularly on the road where they were 8-17 coming into this game.

Before Friday night’s game against Charlotte, D’Antoni was asked if the Bobcats were a dangerous opponent for his team.

“We’re playing, aren’t we? (Then) there’s a danger,” D’Antoni said with a laugh. “If they play the national anthem, we’re in danger.”

He was right.

The Lakers started slow, looking out of sync just as they have for a good portion of the season as pick and rolls turned into turnovers and layups on the other end.

Nash had four early turnovers and Howard threw a pass across court that hit the side of the backboard.

The Lakers turned the ball over five times in the game’s first eight minutes and fell behind 20-9.

Bryant missed his only two shots in the first half, his slowest start since March 31, 2012, when he went three quarters without scoring a point before beating the New Orleans Hornets on a game-winning shot.

The game was similar to earlier this season when the Bobcats led by 18 in Los Angeles only to squander the lead.

“We had them down pretty much the whole game,” Bobcats guard Kemba Walker said. “You know, they made a really good run. Kobe made a lot of good plays, made the right passes and guys just made shots.”

Game notes
Bobcats rookie Michael Kidd-Gilchrist returned to action Friday after missing two games with a concussion. … At halftime Bryant had five rebounds, two assists and no points. … The Bobcats had been one of three teams with a .500 or better record all-time against the Lakers, but fell to 8-9 with Friday night’s loss.

The post Kobe Bryant, Lakers pull away in fourth quarter, top Bobcats appeared first on IdealCapper.

Following the San Francisco 49ers’ 34-31 loss to the Ravens in Super Bowl XLVII, Gore claimed that Baltimore “got away with one.”

“It’s tough,” the Niners star running back said. “I just feel like we [were] the better team. They got away with one today. We showed we were the better team. It was just a couple plays here, a couple plays there.”

Gore, who rushed for 110 yards and a touchdown, was instrumental in San Francisco’s second-half rally. The Niners nearly overcame a 22-point deficit, which would have been the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history.

But the Ravens ultimately held on thanks to a defensive stand deep within their own territory.

“I think we’re the better team,” Gore said. “[I’m] just happy the way we kept fighting. Any other team probably would’ve just laid down, and we let people know what type of guys we’ve got in the locker room, type of warriors we are. It just didn’t happen for us today.”

The Niners gained 468 yards of total offense, including 182 rushing yards on 29 carries — an average of 6.3 yards per attempt. Gore, who averaged 5.8 yards per carry, did not complain about getting just 19 touches in the contest.

“We could’ve ran on them all day,” he said. “We called plays that we thought [were] good, and things didn’t happen.”

Gore also did not second-guess the 49ers’ play calling on their final offensive series.

The four-time Pro Bowler did not receive one carry on the decisive goal-to-go series as the Niners handed off to rookie backup LaMichael James on first down before passing the ball on the final three plays, including Colin Kaepernick’s incompletion to Michael Crabtree on fourth down.

“That’s why we’ve got coaches,” Gore said. “Every player wanted the ball at that time, but coach [Jim Harbaugh] made a decision, and we tried our best to make it happen.

“You can’t say [anything] about it. Our coach did a great job of calling plays all game. Those were the plays he called and it just didn’t happen.”

The post Frank Gore: ‘Niners were better team’ appeared first on IdealCapper.

Nicolas Batum scored 26 points, Damian Lillard had 21 points, six assists and five rebounds, and LaMarcus Aldridge had 19 points and 14 rebounds for Portland.

Stoudemire finished with six points on 3-of-8 shooting and one rebound in 17 minutes off the bench in his return from knee surgery. Anthony shot 14 of 24 and nearly led the Knicks back from 19 points down after missing two games with a knee injury, but the Trail Blazers had too many options.

J.J. Hickson scored all of his 18 points in the first half as Portland won for the third time in four games.

Anthony had missed the previous two games with a hyperextended left knee. The Knicks are still without point guard Raymond Felton because of a broken pinky finger and struggled to get their offense going until too late, losing for the third time in four games.

J.R. Smith had 28 points and 11 rebounds for the Knicks.

Stoudemire had surgery on Oct. 31 to clean up tissue in his left knee and decided to play after going through a couple of practices this week, though adding he wasn’t yet 100 percent. The former All-Star who has battled injuries in recent years was clearly rusty but showed he can still finish at the rim when set up properly.

Coach Mike Woodson wouldn’t say how long Stoudemire would remain a reserve. Stoudemire and Anthony have struggled to play together and the Knicks have a losing record when both play, but Woodson has said the Knicks need both of them on the floor to have a shot at a championship.

Stoudemire was already done for the night when the Knicks made a late run, cutting an 11-point deficit with 3:16 remaining to 100-97 on Anthony’s 3-pointer with 57 seconds left. Lillard answered with a 3-pointer, but the Knicks got it right back down to three again when Anthony converted a three-point play with 29 seconds to go.

The Knicks forced a jump ball and Smith won it, but Anthony missed a 3-pointer. Wesley Matthews, back after missing four straight games with an injured left hip, made two free throws with 13 seconds left to close the scoring.

Stoudemire got a standing ovation when he headed to the scorer’s table before checking in with 3:31 remaining in the first quarter. The Knicks went right to him in the post, but he stepped on the baseline while making his move.

The cheers turned to boos, not heard often this season during the Knicks’ 12-2 start at home, just a few minutes later.

Portland used an 11-0 run in the second quarter to extend a seven-point lead to 43-25 on Mathews’ basket with 7:20 remaining. The lead was 19 when Stoudemire returned with 5:36 left and the Knicks scored seven straight points, but the Blazers regrouped and got it back to 18 after consecutive baskets by Hickson before Stoudemire sat down again.

It was 58-47 at halftime after Anthony banked in a 3-pointer on a broken play with 0.1 seconds left.

The Knicks looked better offensively when Stoudemire returned with 5:06 left in the third quarter and Portland leading by six. He got his first basket when Anthony found him inside with 3:11 left, and he showed his old explosive finishing ability with a dunk later in the period, but the Knicks couldn’t close much of the gap because of their poor defense on Batum. The Frenchman scored 13 points and made three 3-pointers in the quarter, giving the Blazers a 78-71 advantage.

Game notes

The Knicks fell to 16-7 overall and 13-3 at home on New Year’s Day. The record by an opponent for points against the Knicks on Jan. 1 is held by Woodson, who scored 36 for the Clippers in 1988. … This was the Blazers’ first trip to New York since last March 14, when the Knicks won 121-79 hours after Mike D’Antoni resigned and Woodson became the interim coach. Blazers coach Nate McMillan was fired the next day.

The post Carmelo Anthony’s 45, Amar’e Stoudemire return not enough for Knicks appeared first on IdealCapper.