Lakers stay tied for NBA lead, Heat suffer first home defeat in 12 games.
Saturday 14 December 2019 14:46, UK
Perhaps the most surprising team in the NBA this season has been the Miami Heat.
Featuring the newly acquired physical forward Jimmy Butler, the team stood at third place in the Eastern Conference and were a perfect 11-0 at home going into Friday's matchup with the Los Angeles Lakers.
So when the league-leaders came to town with LeBron James, Anthony Davis and co., they were prepared for an old-fashioned punch-up.
Davis scored 33 points, James had 28 while coming within a rebound of a triple-double as the Lakers held off the Heat 113-110 on Friday night, delivering Miami's first home loss.
"It was fun. It was like a heavyweight bout, like the old days, the old boxing Foreman - Ali type of atmosphere," said James after the game. "Two teams that are playing extremely well right now in this part of the season. Two teams that play physical, play together, play hard.
"That's why they are where they are at this point in the season and that's why we are where we are at this point in the season."
James had 12 assists and nine rebounds and Davis grabbed 10 rebounds for the Lakers. They improved to 23-3, extended the second-longest road winning streak in franchise history to 13 games and rallied from a double-digit deficit to win for the eighth time this season.
"It's a really good team that we're playing, a team that has not lost a game on their home floor and they show why," James added.
James, who started the game slowly with an error-prone seven turnovers in the first half, credited his team-mates for calling him out at half-time.
"My team-mates got on my (behind), they told me you're playing too passive, you're thinking about the game too much instead of just reading and reacting and doing what you do," he said.
"They told me just be me. Thank God we got two halves in the basketball game where I can flush the first one and then come back and help us win."
Butler led Miami with 23 points, Derrick Jones Jr. had 17, Kendrick Nunn added 16 and Kelly Olynyk had 15. Bam Adebayo had 12 points and 12 rebounds.
The Lakers outrebounded Miami 50-34, and the last of those was the biggest. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope missed a free throw with eight seconds left to keep the Heat within two, but Miami couldn't get the rebound. Caldwell-Pope went back to the line with 4.2 seconds left, made one of two again and the Lakers' lead was pushed to three.
Butler took the last shot for Miami, a three-pointer with about a second left. It hit the rim and bounced off, the Heat argued that he was fouled to no avail, and the Lakers survived in James' lone trip this season to the city where he won championships in 2012 and 2013.
