LeBron James, Heat add to Cleveland's woes, 117-90

Once more, LeBron James helped the Cleveland Cavaliers reach a milestone in the NBA standings.

First to 40 wins one year.

First to 40 losses the next.

Dwyane Wade scored 26 of his 34 points in the first half, James finished with 24 points and eight assists and the Miami Heat beat the Cavaliers for the third time since the two-time MVP changed cities, winning 117-90 Monday night to hand Cleveland its 21st straight loss — as many as it dropped in the entire 2009-10 regular season.

Cleveland (8-40) is now two losses shy of tying the single-season NBA futility streak record shared by the 1995-96 Vancouver Grizzlies and 1997-98 Denver Nuggets. Overall, the Cavaliers have lost 31 of 32 games, along with 24 straight on the road.

"I have nothing bad to say about the players that I left and the team," James said. "I wish the organization the best. And I wish the fans, more than anything, the best because we had a lot of great years together."

They might be hard-pressed to remember those now.

This game had a few moments of hope for the Cavaliers. They were down by 19 in the first half, when Wade was almost unguardable for stretches — one of his dunks, off a pass from James, was so spectacular that rap moguls Sean "Diddy" Combs and Rick Ross leaped from their courtside seats.

Quietly, Cleveland started putting together good stretch after good stretch, getting within 70-67 in the third quarter.

Was this going to be the night?

Not a chance.

James had nine points in a 19-5 run to close the third quarter, Miami's lead was 89-72 entering the fourth, and it turned into a romp from there.

"We played pretty good in the third quarter," Cavaliers coach Byron Scott said. "I thought they just took it to another gear. They've got the type of team that can do that."

The Heat (34-14) moved within 2 1/2 games of Boston for the best record in the Eastern Conference. Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 12 points and a season-high 14 rebounds against his former team, Eddie House also scored 12 and Chris Bosh added 10 points for Miami.

For Cleveland, Antawn Jamison finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Manny Harris scored 20 points and J.J. Hickson added 14. The Cavaliers were outrebounded 49-39.

"They are a good team and they've got some players who can make plays," Cleveland's Anthony Parker said, "even if you do everything right."

James insisted he bears no ill will against his first NBA team, and as if to underscore that, he pulled Harris aside for some postgame words of encouragement.

"I think he's a very talented young player," James said. "And I just told him no matter what's going on with the team, he has to continue to play well. He has to continue to stay aggressive, have his confidence."

Said Harris: "Coming from a player like him and his caliber it means a lot. Everything he said was right."

Wade hit 10 of his first 12 shots, the third straight game for him with a sizzling start. James had 15 in the first half, including a highlight-caliber dunk over Christian Eyenga and Hickson that gave Miami a 61-44 lead.

And although it was a one-possession game midway through the third quarter, the outcome never truly seemed in doubt.

"We had great respect for Cleveland tonight," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "Sometimes it can happen very quickly like that. That's why we talk about the habits. A game can change in three minutes. In a playoff series, that can be all it takes."

Cleveland's franchise — which reached great heights with James for seven years, and has fallen to the bottom of the NBA less than seven months after he left — already owns the all-time NBA losing-streak record, a 24-game slide that spanned from March to November 1982.

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Sports Authority Review: MVP of the Heat?

D-Wade returns, the Heat win. LeBron sits, the Heat lose. So who’s more valuable to Miami, LeBron or D-Wade?

Steve Aschburner:

Miami Heat fans get pretty upset, and Cleveland Cavaliers fans don’t much appreciate it either, but LeBron James clearly is the more valuable of these two. He already has won two MVPs in seven seasons and, in switching teams, has had huge impacts on both the Heat and the Cavs this season. Dwyane Wade is an All-Star, maybe a future Hall of Famer, but he has finished in the top five of MVP balloting only twice. His absence in training camp and the Heat’s struggle was all about learning, not needing to be rescued by an MVP. And look, this is coming from a Marquette alum.

Fran Blinebury:

It’s not a cop-out to say none of the above. The whole reason they came together is that neither was capable of carrying a team and winning a championship on his own. Then again, neither was Kobe before he got Pau. So now Wade and James are both each other’s Pau (and pal) and it’s the combustible combination that gives them the explosive power to win it all.

Art Garcia:

Don’t think you can tell much from a one-game sample, but it’s clear that both of these guys are critical to the Heat’s success. They’re not going to go far without either one for long stretches because this team just isn’t very deep. And you might as well throw Chris Bosh into the mix since Miami lost Wednesday night without its favorite lefty. If I had to pick one, I’d go D-Wade. No wait, LeBron. Ask me again next week.

Scott Howard-Cooper:

That’s an impossible tie to break. LeBron is slightly better as a player, but Wade has the longevity in Miami, and a ring, unlike some people, and is more of a stabilizing factor than James. Wade is also unmatched as a recruiter. None of this happens without D-Wade.

Shaun Powell:

I call it a push. A LeBron-only team doesn’t make Miami any more or less dangerous than a Wade-only team. I think both players would face the same issues and challenges because they’re similar players with similar styles. But I believe we know which player is more valuable from a PR standpoint.

John Schuhmann: Statistically, it’s been LeBron, who has a better plus-minus (raw and per-minute) thus far. He’s the more complete player and asked to do more in the Miami offense. But obviously, the Heat need both of them if they’re going to have a shot against the league’s best teams. And it will be how well they play together that determines how far they go in the postseason.

Sekou Smith:

This is a trick question. More valuable to the Heat? They can’t win the way they want or expect to without them both healthy and playing their best, particularly in the postseason. That said, as critical as Wade has always been to the Heat’s fortunes, he simply doesn’t impact the game in as many ways as LeBron can. James takes decent role players and makes them a 60-win team. Wade with the same role players produces a 45-win team.

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Bosh out, James starts Against Hawks

MIAMI – When LeBron James arrived for a shootaround practice Tuesday morning, his sprained left ankle was still sore and swollen.

By game time, the NBA's two-time reigning MVP was good to go.

James started for Miami on Tuesday against the Atlanta Hawks, ending an absence where the Heat lost games in Denver and Chicago with him sidelined. The Heat, however, were without forward Chris Bosh, who sprained his left ankle in the Chicago loss.

"We do have versatility on the roster," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "This is probably the time it'll show the most, playing guys that weren't necessarily playing big minutes, they'll be able to step up and have their opportunity."

Joel Anthony started at power forward in place of Bosh, who was ruled out early Tuesday.

James missed his customary pregame media session Tuesday, getting even more treatment. The determination was made about 45 minutes before tip-off that he would start.

James, Bosh and Dwyane Wade — Miami's Big 3 — all missed practice Monday as well. Wade has a sore left knee, courtesy of a collision with the Bulls' Kurt Thomas in the Chicago loss on Saturday, and was still battling some swelling on Tuesday, but sitting out was never an option.

"No matter who's on the floor ... we've got to find a way to get a win versus one of the hottest teams in the league," Wade said.

Spoelstra said he had five different lineup cards ready, depending on whether or not James would play. It was turning into a chess game of sorts; Hawks coach Larry Drew said he was waiting on his lineup decision until seeing who Miami had available.

The Hawks aren't perfectly healthy either. Forward Marvin Williams missed his ninth straight game with a lower back injury.

After Tuesday, the Heat do not play again until hosting Toronto on Saturday, giving Bosh plenty of time to heal.

Bosh was hurt with 30.7 seconds left in the third quarter in Chicago, going for the ball while the Bulls' Omer Asik dove for it as well. Asik rolled into Bosh's lower leg, and the Heat forward immediately grabbed at his left shin in obvious pain — and the way he tumbled prompted fears that the injury could be bad.

"He's making progress," Spoelstra said. "He's moving around better today. Certainly not ready to run and explode off of it, but if you saw the footage, the replay of it, we're just thankful it's minor at this point."

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LeBron James Power Heat to 96-82 Victory over Bobcats

LeBron James scored 38 points, Dwyane Wade added 31 and the Miami Heat dominated the second half to beat the short-handed Charlotte Bobcats 96-82 on Monday night for their 11th straight road win.

Playing for the first time against Paul Silas, his first NBA coach in Cleveland, James scored 26 of his points in the second half and added nine rebounds. Wade grabbed 11 boards in Miami's 18th win in 19 games.

Charlotte played without starting forward Gerald Wallace (ankle) and center Nazr Mohammed (knee) the same day tests revealed backup big man DeSagana Diop is lost for the season with a ruptured Achilles' tendon.

With Kwame Brown the only healthy center, the Bobcats fell apart offensively, missing 18 straight shots bridging the second and third quarters.

Stephen Jackson scored 22 points and D.J. Augustin added 16 for the Bobcats, who shot 38 percent from the field with 15 turnovers.

It was a day of awards for the Heat, with James and Wade sharing the Eastern Conference player of the month award, Wade named the East's player of the week and Erik Spoelstra picking up the coach of the month honor.

After worrying before the game that his players might get complacent amid their hot streak, Spoelstra had some concerns early in his 200th game on the bench.

Charlotte, one of the league's worst offensive teams, shot 63 percent in the first quarter behind Jackson's 12 points. The Bobcats led by seven in the second and went up 41-35 on Gerald Henderson's hoop with 4:05 left.

But Miami clamped down defensively and by the time the Bobcats got another shot to fall — Augustin's 3-pointer with 5:30 left in the third — Miami led 61-51.

James later made four straight shots as the lead ballooned to 78-59 heading into the fourth.
After the Bobcats cut the deficit to 80-69, James beat the shot clock by swishing a 30-footer along the left baseline while double teamed. He then stole a pass and went in for a reverse dunk on the next possession and Miami had locked up matching the second-longest road winning streak in franchise history.

James, whose Cavaliers lost here twice last season, revealed before the game players refer to themselves as the "Heatles" as they played in front of a rare sellout crowd in Charlotte.
"Off of the Beatles," James said. "Every time we take our show on the road, we bring a great crowd out."

This time, James took out his former coach, whom he credited for "learning how to be a professional on and off the court" as a rookie and second-year player in Cleveland.

Silas, who dropped to 2-2 since replacing the fired Larry Brown, had little to work with against a dominant team on a roll as owner Michael Jordan watched courtside.

Wallace was back on the shelf after playing in two games following a five-game absence for a sprained left ankle. The 2010 All-Star, who also has a bone bruise, aggravated the injury in practice on Sunday and Silas said he'll be out "a few games."

Mohammed was scratched about an hour before the game with a bruised right knee, and the Bobcats were outrebounded 46-35 in their second straight loss.

Joel Anthony had 11 rebounds in Miami's sixth straight win to help offset an off night from Chris Bosh, who had 11 points and four rebounds on 4-of-9 shooting.

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The Greatest Man in the East

All last season, there was no "Amar'e Countdown" or "Amar'e Watch" in the New York papers. The fans didn't chant his name or drop on bended knee when his team, the Suns, played at the Garden. And when it came time to sign free agents last summer, he was far enough down the wish list that you needed to borrow his goggles to find him.

No, he wasn't The One They Wanted. Or even The Two They Wanted.

But after a franchise-record nine-straight 30-point game, and an MVP-like start, New Yorkers are glad to have him. Even better for the Knicks and their fans: Amar'e Stoudemire wanted New York, and how many free agents in any sport would gladly walk into the snakepit that he did?

Well, yes, the money helps. A lot. One hundred extra-large is enough to convince anyone to play anywhere and for any team -- even for the Clippers. Let's be clear about that. And yet, this is New York, which can be cruel, and these were the Knicks, desperate for a savior and by extension, a scapegoat if the misery continued. This wasn't a situation for the meek.

Apparently, it's a situation made for Stoudemire.

"This was the plan," Stoudemire said. "The plan was to have success."
Stoudemire isn't the answer to the whole puzzle, but a generous piece that the Knicks needed to become relevant again. With a 16-10 record, and a hunch that if nothing else the Dark Decade is over, the Garden is noisy again. Knicks games are an event; Wednesday night's thriller with the Celtics certainly was, and Friday's visit by Miami will certainly be. And there's someone worth paying to see, for the first time since Patrick Ewing.
"There's a reason he's balling this season," said Nene, the Nuggets' center. "Nobody's stopping him."
He came a split-second away from a special moment when he barely missed beating the Celtics with a game-winning 3-pointer Wednesday. Still, he was the best player on the floor, scoring 39 points with 10 rebounds and three blocks. Not even Ewing had a run like this, which is why there's a basketball awakening in New York.

Stoudemire so far has dismissed two myths: That he'd be less of a player without Steve Nash around, and that he couldn't elevate a dormant team. Instead, he's playing the best of his career away from Nash, averaging 26.2 points (up five points from his career average) and is having as good a season, if not better, than anyone in the NBA. That's including LeBron James, the player the Knicks and New York wanted last summer. That puts Stoudemire in the early conversation for MVP and the Knicks in the running for a top-5 finish in the East.

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Nine is not Enough: The Heat Won Their 10th Straight Game Over Cavs

LeBron James had few words for his former Cleveland teammates this time.

Dwyane Wade did more than enough talking with his play.

Wade scored 17 of his 28 points in the fourth quarter, James added 21 points and a season-high 13 rebounds, and the Miami Heat won their 10th straight game, holding off the Cavaliers 101-95 on Wednesday night.

"It was a good game," James said. "We executed enough plays down the stretch to help us win. Gut-check? I don't ever think it got to a gut-check point ... but for us, we're happy that we continued to win and we continued to get better."

The star duo was silent in on-court words, perhaps, but not in actions. James flexed his arms after getting fouled and scoring on a drive to the basket, Wade did his arms-flailing, "George Jefferson" celebration again, then looked down and screamed at his right hand after hitting a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter.

But those moments of joy aside, this one wasn't easy.

Far from it, as James' former team - which got rolled by 28 in Cleveland on Dec. 2 in the clubs' first meeting of the season - gave Miami all it wanted this time around.

"We got the win, we won 10 straight and that ultimately is the most important thing. I get it, OK?" Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "But we also want to make sure that the process that we've been talking about, whether we lost or whether we won, that we're playing to our potential. Cleveland played very well tonight and I do want to give them credit. They competed."

Chris Bosh scored 16 points for Miami, Mario Chalmers had 14 and James Jones added 11.

Miami failed in its quest to be the fourth NBA team ever to win 10 straight games by at least 10 points. Still, the 10-game winning streak - by any margin - matched the fourth-longest in Heat history. The try for No. 11 comes Friday night in New York against the Knicks.

"I've never won 10 games in a row," Bosh said. "So I'm happy."

Daniel Gibson scored 26 points for Cleveland, which lost its ninth straight. Anderson Varejao had 18 points and 15 rebounds, Antawn Jamison scored 15 points and Mo Williams added 13 for the Cavs.

"I couldn't ask for them to play any harder than they played," Cavs coach Byron Scott said. "I thought they were terrific effort-wise. They competed for 48 minutes."

Emotions were nowhere near as high as they were when James appeared in Cleveland for the first time as an opponent on Dec. 2, though there was some tension. At least one skirmish broke out in the stands - a rare occurrence in Miami - during the fourth quarter as Miami pulled away.

On the court, there was some flareups as well. Gibson wrapped up James on a fast break in the fourth quarter, the two friends not exchanging a word. And in the opening minutes, Wade was tackled by Joey Graham while dunking after an assist from James.

Still, this one was nothing like the hyped-for-months matchup in Cleveland two weeks ago that turned into a blowout.

"We had fight in us," Bosh said. "They had fight, too. We just grinded the game out."
Miami's 14-point lead was down to six when Gibson hit a 3-pointer with 2:09 left, and Jamison's free throws 36 seconds later made it 96-93.

That was Cleveland's last gasp. Gibson missed a 3-pointer over James with 46 seconds left, Williams missed a long try from the left side with 17 ticks remaining - he finished 1 for 10 from beyond the arc - and Miami escaped.

The mood when the players took the floor was noticably different than the game in Cleveland, when both James and members of the team he left behind were criticized for being, at times, a little too chummy with one another.

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Miami turns up Heat to Thrash Hornets 96 – 84 for Ninth Straight Win

The red-hot Miami Heat used an 18-2 second-half run to blow past the New Orleans Hornets 96-84 on Monday for their ninth straight victory.

Dwyane Wade scored 32 points, including the final six of Miami's second-half explosion that gave the Heat a commanding 94-77 lead midway through the fourth quarter.

Chris Bosh had 23 points and 11 rebounds while LeBron James finished with 20 points as the "Big Three" continued to find their form during a dominant stretch for Miami (18-8).

Miami lost to New Orleans in their last meeting on Nov 5, but the teams have gone in opposite directions since then with the Hornets (14-10) losing nine of their last 12 following a surprising 11-1 start to the season.

David West put up 26 points and 12 rebounds for New Orleans, which kept the game close until the Heat raced away with the contest beginning late in the third quarter.

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