Cavs rally but fall to red-hot Heat
LeBron James scores 28 as Miami wins 11th straight win
2/25/2013MIAMI — LeBron James scored 28 points, Dwyane Wade scored 11 of his 24 in the final five minutes, and the Miami Heat extended the NBA's longest current winning streak to 11 games, beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 109-105 in a back-and-forth matchup Sunday night.
Mario Chalmers scored 16 points, Shane Battier added 14, and Ray Allen had 11 for the Heat, who took a 22-point lead early in the second half, then prevailed despite being outscored by a whopping 30 points over a 17-minute stretch.
Miami was down eight with 5:16 remaining, and still won.
Dion Waiters scored 26 points, C.J. Miles added 19, and Kyrie Irving scored 17 for Cleveland. The Cavaliers are now 1-8 against the Heat since James signed with Miami in July, 2010.
Cleveland erased a 22-point deficit in the third quarter to take the lead and led by 97-89 with 5:16 remaining — before the Heat found a way to come back.
Wade started what turned into a 16-4 run with a fadeaway with just under 5 minutes to go, then added a three-point play on the next Miami possession to cut the Cavs’ lead to 97-94.
The Heat were back in business. And after Irving missed a layup with about 1:35 left, Wade got the rebound and wound up setting up Battier for a 3-pointer that put Miami on top again for good.
From there, the Heat got a little bit of luck. Bosh set up James for what should have been an easy layup with about 40 seconds left. James somehow missed, and the ball wound up back in Bosh's hands, the Heat having a new shot clock. Wade wore it down, then drove the left side of the lane for a two-handed slam with 24.4 seconds to play, and Miami on top by four.
Down 68-46 early in the third quarter, the Cavs looked finished.
By the start of the fourth, the Heat’s lead was nonexistent. The C.J. Miles Show lasted for all of 63 seconds. And they were a scintillating 63 seconds.
It started with 1:35 left in the third, a 3-pointer from Miles getting the Miami lead down to seven. Then he got a rebound, came downcourt, and connected on another 3-pointer. Lead down to four. Another stop by the Cavs on one end, then another 3-pointer for Miles on the other — that one coming both with him drawing a foul from Mario Chalmers, and with Heat coach Erik Spoelstra getting hit with a technical for arguing.
He made the technical free throw to tie the game, the free throw for the Chalmers hit to put the Cavs ahead, and they carried that 82-81 lead into the fourth, having closed the quarter on a 36-13 run.