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Shaquille leads Heat to seventh Straight victory

Shaquille O'Neal had 33 points, and the Miami Heat rode an 18-2 second-half surge to a seventh straight victory, 107-90 Thursday night over the Timberwolves.

O'Neal added 13 rebounds, was 10-for-18 from the floor and -- most surprisingly, considering he was a 46.2-percent foul shooter coming into the game -- hit on 13 of 18 tries from the line.

"Historically, I've shot 50 percent, so that's miss one and make one," said O'Neal. "The more attempts I get, it's like more practice. ... I'm not going to miss them all."

Dwyane Wade added 20 points for the Heat, who won their 11th straight at home and expanded their lead in the Eastern Conference to eight games over idle Detroit. Miami (47-16) has 19 regular-season games remaining.

"The real key stretch for us was at the end of the third quarter," said Miami coach Stan Van Gundy. "It was going south. They had an [eight-point] lead. We weren't playing very well, we weren't playing with a lot of energy and I thought that Keyon in particular gave us a real big lift in that stretch. Getting it tied was key."

Kevin Garnett had 22 points and 19 rebounds for Minnesota, which came in with a three-game winning streak. The Timberwolves had won seven of their last eight games against Miami and led by eight points with 2:21 left in the third quarter, but shot just 31.8 percent the rest of the way.

Troy Hudson added 20 points for Minnesota.

Lakers 100, Mavericks 95

In Dallas, Kobe Bryant scored 36 points and made two huge plays on each end of the court in the last 1:20 to give the Los Angeles Lakers a win over Dallas to start to a long road trip.

Nowitzki, who scored 25 points but shot just 6-of-19, missed a 3-pointer with 11 seconds left that would have tied it at 98.

A lawyer for the man charged with throwing a chair during the Nov. 19 brawl at the game between the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons must testify for the prosecution, a judge has ruled.

Kenneth Karasick had sought a court order to keep prosecutors from calling him to testify against his client, Bryant Jackson.

Charges were filed against five Pacers players and seven Pistons fans, including the 35-year-old Jackson.

Prosecutors say that when Karasick met with Auburn Hills police to review a videotape of the fight, he told a detective, "That's our boy," when the chair thrower appeared on the screen.

On Wednesday, attorneys for Karasick argued that forcing him to testify would violate attorney-client privilege.
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