The Miami Heat won their 27th straight game as LeBron James made 24 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds in a late 108-94 victory over the Orlando Magic on Monday.
Mario Chalmers scored 17, and Chris Bosh and Ray Allen each had 12 for Miami, who broke open a deadlock with a 13-0 run spanning the end of the third and start of the fourth quarters.
The Heat now are within six games of matching the 1971-1972 Los Angeles Lakers for the longest winning streak in NBA history. It was the 250th win for Heat coach Erik Spoelstra as well.
Photo: AFP
Jameer Nelson had 27 points and 12 assists for the Magic, who got 20 points from Tobias Harris.
New Orleans’ Ryan Anderson scored 23 points and Brian Roberts doubled his career high with 18 assists as the Hornets ended the Denver Nuggets’ 15-game winning streak with a 110-86 win.
New Orleans, playing without their starting backcourt of Eric Gordon and Greivis Vasquez, won their third in a row and were in control all the way.
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Danilo Gallinari had 24 points for the Nuggets.
In Washington, John Wall scored a career-high 47 points and added eight assists and Emeka Okafor had 21 points and nine rebounds to lead the Wizards past the Memphis Grizzlies 107-94.
Mike Conley led Memphis with 23 points.
It was Washington’s sixth straight home win, while Memphis dropped their fourth straight road game.
The Golden State Warriors held off the Los Angeles Lakers 109-103 after Stephen Curry had 25 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds on a sprained right ankle.
David Lee added 23 points and 12 rebounds, and Klay Thompson scored 22 points to propel the Warriors to a 25-point lead early in the third quarter in a matchup with huge playoff implications. Golden State improved to a game ahead of Houston and 4.5 games in front of the Lakers for sixth place in the Western Conference.
Kobe Bryant scored 36 points and Steve Nash had 21 points, nine rebounds and seven assists in an otherwise lackluster Lakers effort.
In other games, Gerald Green scored 19 points and Roy Hibbert finished with 17 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Indiana Pacers past the Atlanta Hawks 100-94, while Randy Foye scored 17 points as the Utah Jazz beat the Philadelphia 76ers 107-91 to halt a four-game losing streak.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
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