The Miami HEAT defeated the Golden State Warriors 111-110 on Wednesday night at Oracle Arena. LeBron James nearly had a triple-double as he amassed 36 points, 13 rebounds, and nine assists.
Impact Performance of the Night: LeBron James put on a clinic for the second night in a row. James hit the game-winning three-pointer over Andre Iguodala with 0.2 left in the game. James was going for the win the whole time, as Erik Spoelstra elected not to call a timeout before the HEAT’s last possession and James held onto the ball until he took the shot.
Iggy played perfect defense on James, but sometimes even that isn't good enough when you’re covering the greatest player on the planet. Before that shot, James hit a huge three to put the HEAT up 107-105 with 58 seconds left. James hit tough, clutch shots throughout the game and was the catalyst behind a gritty HEAT win.
The Deciding Run: This game truly was a game of runs. The HEAT built a nice cushion early as they closed out the first and second quarters very well and played excellent defense.
That extended into the third quarter when Toney Douglas drove hard to the bucket and passed to a streaking Chris Bosh who slammed it to put the HEAT up 15 with 8:40 left in the quarter.
The HEAT would eventually go up 21 points with 7:51 left in the third thanks to a 12-2 run.
The Warriors then went on a colossal 28-9 run to end the third quarter that closed the gap very quickly heading into a very fast paced, exciting fourth quarter.
Early on in that fourth quarter, the HEAT went on an 11-0 run to gain some momentum back.
Play of the Game: The undoubted play of the game was LeBron James’ three-pointer to win it, which I documented earlier. Again, James was going for the win the whole way and was determined to leave Oakland victorious heading into the All-Star break. Another great play from James occurred with a little over nine minutes left in the third quarter when James easily got past a helpless David Lee down the baseline and finished with a sick reverse jam.
Trend to Watch: LeBron James’ dominance. James always has an otherworldly stretch in a season in which his shooting percentage sky rockets along with every other statistical category. It seems like James is primed for one of those very soon when the HEAT finish their road trip after All-Star weekend.
Another trend to keep an eye on is the HEAT defense. In the first half on Wednesday night, the HEAT got back to their defensive principles. Stephen Curry was forced to give up the ball a lot on pick and rolls due to nice defense by the bigs in the first half.
The Takeaway: This was an excellent way for the HEAT to enter All-Star weekend. The HEAT will now get some much needed rest before finishing the long road trip against Dallas and Oklahoma City. Add to the fact that with the win and the Pacers’ loss, the HEAT enter the break only 2.5 games out of first place in the Eastern Conference.
Notes: Michael Beasley played a great game, as he had 16 points off the bench on 7-of-11 shooting. He really made his presence felt in Dwyane Wade’s absence. Chris Bosh and Chris Andersen crashed the boards very well and contributed a lot of back-taps that kept HEAT possessions alive. Toney Douglas was very active in the 11 minutes he played early in the game.