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| Heat snap a 5 game losing streak to beat Lakers |
MIAMI -- Less than 2 minutes to go, tie game, Kobe Bryant with the basketball and staring down Dwyane Wade. Bryant's move was good. Wade's reaction was better, and in that moment, Miami's epic run of blown opportunities late in games started coming to an end. Wade's steal set up LeBron James for the dunk that put Miami ahead to stay with 1:27 left, Chris Bosh scored 24 points in his first outing after saying he wanted more shots, and the Heat beat the Los Angeles Lakers 94-88 on Thursday night to end a five-game losing streak and hand the two-time defending NBA champions their first loss in nine games.
"We had everything riding on this game, really, to be honest with you," Bosh said. Wade scored eight of his 20 points in the fourth quarter and James finished with 19 points, nine assists and eight rebounds for Miami, which secured a postseason bid with 17 games left -- the earliest that's happened in franchise history.
That was an ancillary point: Winning again was all that mattered. "We didn't want to run away from this," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "We didn't want to hide from any of this. We want to get better. We want to make sure our game is right and ready when it really counts."
Bryant scored 24 points for the Lakers, who got 20 from Pau Gasol. Andrew Bynum finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds for Los Angeles. Bryant and Wade tangled again after the steal led to the go-ahead basket, when Bryant tried a 3-pointer with 1:06 left. Wade was credited with a block, and Bryant said afterward he was fouled. "It's clearly evident," Bryant said. Said Wade: "I didn't." That wasn't the lone bit of verbal jousting the teams engaged in Thursday.
Lakers coach Phil Jackson -- who's shown a flair for poking the Heat more than once this season -- struck again before tipoff when he likened Miami's tendencies to what you'd see in an Xbox video game. "I'm not a big fan of the style that Miami plays," Jackson said. He might like it less now, after the Heat finished off a season sweep of the defending champions.
Glad the loosing streak ended for Miami's sake. What I will be watching for is Chris Bosh's level of consistency with from what he displayed Thursday nite or was it all just a fluke. I will be looking for leadership from both Lebron and Dwayne. All in all, I think Miami will make it out of the verdict is still out on that team. I believe they will get out of the first round but that will be it. I tend to agree with Kobe, they (Miami) are still trying to figure out the pieces and roles of individuals. Until that process is complete, they will struggle with teams over 500.
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