Dion Waiters on Monday scored a last-gasp three-pointer as the Miami Heat stunned the Golden State Warriors 105-102 to snap the NBA pace-setters’ seven-game win streak.
Waiters led the scoring with 33 points as Miami notched their fourth consecutive victory in a dramatic finale at the American Airlines Arena in Miami.
It was the second straight game that Waiters had scored a career-high 33 points.
Photo: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY
“These are the moments you want to live for, especially against a great team like that,” Waiters said. “I’m in a zone right now.”
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra agreed with Waiters assessment of his performance.
“He’s not scared,” Spoelstra said. “He wants those moments as much as anybody. He’s been pestering me on those kind of deals, wanting those opportunities in the fourth quarter. He and I go at it all the time.”
The Heat were made to sweat for the victory and came within a whisker of surrendering the initiative after the Warriors put together a 12-3 scoring run to go within one point with just more than 21 seconds left.
The Heat improved to 15-30 with the victory, while the Golden State Warriors fell to 38-7.
Kevin Durant led the scoring for Golden State with 27 points, while Klay Thompson finished with 22 and Stephen Curry 21.
“We did not lose this game in the last three or four minutes — we were soft tonight,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “We did not execute defensively... They were the smarter and tougher team tonight.”
In New Orleans, LeBron James posted a triple-double and Kyrie Irving exploded for 49 points, but the Cleveland Cavaliers duo still finished on the losing side against an inspired Pelicans, who ran out 124-122 winners.
New Orleans had gone into the game missing injured star Anthony Davis, but Terrence Jones proved a more than able deputy, pouring in a career-high 36 points, while Jrue Holiday produced 33 points and 10 assists to seal victory despite a dogged Cleveland fightback.
The defeat was the Cavs’ sixth in their past 10 games and left them on 30-13. The Pelicans improved to 18-27 with the win.
“We’ve got to figure it out. It’s been a crappy 2017 so far,” said James, who finished with 26 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists. “I’m not complaining, but right now we’re just trying to get out of a hole.”
“Coach’ll figure it out, and we’ve got to figure it out as far as minutes, too. We’ve just got to be better as a team,” James said. “It’s not about how many minutes I’m playing right now or being fresh down the stretch. We’ve got to be good right now, and we’re not winning.”
Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry was happy at how his team had bounced back after a 143-114 drubbing on Friday last week by the Brooklyn Nets, the worst team in the NBA.
“I just thought it was a game that we competed like crazy and played hard and then got a lead, knowing at some stage they were going to make a run,” Gentry said of Monday’s win.
Elsewhere, Russell Westbrook delivered a jumper with 1.4 seconds left on the clock — and his incredible 22nd triple-double of the season — as the Oklahoma City Thunder shaded the Utah Jazz 97-95 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Westbrook finished with 38 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds. Victor Oladipo scored 18 points, while Enes Kanter added 14 off the bench.
The Thunder win ended Utah’s six-game winning streak and saw Oklahoma City improve to 26-19. Utah are 29-17 for the season.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB