The Miami HEAT defeated the Dallas Mavericks 117-106 Tuesday night at AmericanAirlines Center. LeBron James led the way for the HEAT with 42 points, nine rebounds and six assists.
Impact Performance of the Night: LeBron James continued where he left off before the All-Star break and registered his highest scoring total of the season. James shot an unbelievable 16-of-23 from the field for 42 points, including 4-of-8 on threes. All on his own, James had an 8-0 run midway through the fourth quarter that included back-to-back threes to put the HEAT up five.
The Deciding Run: The HEAT went on an impressive 29-15 run to end the game. Miami looked like a different team in the fourth quarter compared to the rest of the game, as it greatly picked up its defensive intensity. The HEAT played excellent team defense in that span, which suffocated the Mavericks and forced them into tough, low percentage jump shots. Mario Chalmers and Chris Bosh were quite aggressive in the passing lanes as well.
James was the catalyst behind the run, as he scored 12 points in the fourth quarter.
Play of the Game: With the HEAT down three with 7:28 left in the game, LeBron James knew it was time to take control. James proceeded to hit two threes to swing momentum and give the HEAT a lead they wouldn't relinquish. The timing of both threes couldn't have come at a better time with the Mavericks trying to mount a run of their own.
Another nice play on Tuesday night came with just over seven minutes left in the first quarter when Dwyane Wade threw up a perfect lob to James from half-court for an alley-oop.
Trend to Watch: One thing to keep an eye on is the HEAT's rebounding down the stretch. The Mavericks out-rebounded the HEAT 50-28 and often gave themselves second and third chance opportunities. However, the HEAT did a nice job of limiting those in the fourth quarter and really made all phases of the game difficult for Dallas. It will be interesting to see if that tenacity and intensity will translate over to Thursday night against the Thunder.
The Takeaway: This was a nice win against a very talented Mavericks team. The fourth quarter of this game should serve as a blueprint for what the HEAT need to do moving forward. The HEAT made every shot difficult for the Mavericks in the quarter and capitalized in transition on the other end.
In addition, Mario Chalmers played a very smart, efficient game as he got past Jose Calderon with ease and set up teammates well. He finished with 10 points and nine assists. Chris Bosh picked his spots on offense and had yet another huge three-pointer with 1:17 left to put the HEAT up 11.
All in all, this is the kind of showing that propels a team into the home stretch of a season. The HEAT have picked up the pace throughout this road trip and there is no better example of that than the fourth quarter on Tuesday night.
Notes: Early on, the HEAT showed great balance offensively thanks to great ball movement. Everyone who received minutes on Tuesday night scored outside of Ray Allen.
Greg Oden played solid minutes in the second quarter. He scored five points in his five minutes of play and fought hard down low not giving up on plays and finishing strong at the rim.
Chris Andersen had a very nice game and finished with 18 points.
The HEAT have now won six in a row against the Mavericks.