Paul Millsap scored a career-high 46 points, including a rebound basket to force overtime, and the Utah Jazz edged Miami 116-114 on Tuesday despite stellar showings from Dwyane Wade and LeBron James.
The Jazz rallied from a 22-point deficit and pulled level at 104-104 on Millsap’s basket at the final buzzer of the fourth quarter. Utah claimed the victory on two free throws by Francisco Elson with 0.4 of a second remaining.
“It’s speechless, to be down like that to a team like this and to come out with a win,” Millsap said. “We clawed our way out of it, but this says a lot about our team.”
Wade scored 39 points and James produced his 29th career triple double — double-digit totals in three categories — with 20 points, 14 assists and 11 rebounds, but the Heat still suffered their first home loss of the season.
“I think we panicked a little bit as a group,” Wade said.
James produced the first triple-double for the Heat since Shaquille O’Neal in 2006 and his seventh in a losing cause, a defeat he credited in large part to the skills of Utah’s Jerry Sloan, the longest-tenured active NBA coach.
“Jerry Sloan is one of the best coaches we have in our league,” James said. “He kind of figured out what we wanted to do.”
The Heat, 5-3, missed five shots in the last two minutes of overtime to equalize or seize the lead, the last by Eddie House at the concluding buzzer.
Utah’s Deron Williams scored 21 points and added 14 assists while Andrei Kirilenko contributed 16 points for the Jazz, who had lost their six prior games at Miami.
“At some point in the year, unfortunately, we have to go through something like this,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
Chris Bosh added 17 points for the Heat and lamented his team’s inability to shut down the Jazz at the start of the second half.
“We came out flat in the third quarter,” Bosh said. “We didn’t have the sense of urgency that we needed. We had a chance to put them away and we didn’t.”
Only seven other players have scored as much as Millsap did in one game against the Heat, a list that includes James, Michael Jordan, Vince Carter, Alex English and Gilbert Arenas.
“He got easy buckets, a lot of easy buckets,” Bosh said of Millsap. “I had never seen him hit a three before.”
Kirilenko’s 3-pointer with one minute, 50 seconds remaining in overtime gave the Jazz, now 4-3, a 112-111 edge, but the Heat pulled level at 114-114 on a Wade 3-pointer with 17 seconds remaining.
Elson was fouled by Wade near the basket on the final Jazz possession and Elson made the winning free throws inside the final half-second.
Millsap had averaged 6.9 points in eight prior games against Miami, but beat the Heat by sparking Utah to 42 points in the fourth quarter with 11 of his own in the last 28 seconds, including two 3-pointers in the final 12.1 seconds.
“The man was on fire,” said Wade, who connected on only 12 of his 23 shots.
“I guess when it rains, it pours,” Millsap said.
The Heat ran off 15 consecutive points at one stretch in the first quarter on the way to a 51-32 halftime lead.
Hornets 101, Clippers 82
In New Orleans, the hosts remained unbeaten this season by comfortably downing Los Angeles.
New Orleans’ Willie Green scored 19 points and fellow reserve guard Jarryd Bayless added 15. With Chris Paul on the bench, Bayless and Green took over in the fourth quarter, combining to score the Hornets’ first 19 points in the period to put New Orleans up 89-69.
New Orleans is off to a franchise-best 7-0 start under rookie coach Monty Williams.
Al-Farouq Aminu scored 20 for the Clippers, who played most of the game without starting center Chris Kaman after he sprained an ankle.
Pacers 144, Nuggets 113
In Indianapolis, Indiana came close to a perfect shooting record in the third quarter as it racked up a huge score against Denver.
The Pacers made their first 20 shots of the third quarter, coming within 1.9 seconds of a perfect period when Josh McRoberts missed a 3-point attempt.
Mike Dunleavy scored 24 of his 31 points in the Pacers’ 54-point period. Indiana, which shot 64 percent overall, led 113-76 at the end of the third quarter.
Darren Collison scored 29 points for the Pacers, who set league season highs for points, field goals made and field-goal percentage.
Ty Lawson led Denver with 19 points.
Cavaliers 93, Nets 91
In Newark, New Jersey, Antawn Jamison and Anthony Parker hit late 3-pointers to lift Cleveland over New Jersey.
Cleveland made five of its nine 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, none being bigger than the ones by Jamison and Parker in the final two minutes, 28 seconds.
The Cavaliers got 52 points from the reserves, with J.J. Hickson leading a balanced attack with 18 points.
Travis Outlaw scored a season-high 27 points for the Nets, who have lost five in a row overall and nine in a row to Cleveland.
***Bucks 107, Knicks 80***
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the host broke out of an early-season shooting slump with a big win over New York.
Brandon Jennings scored 19 points and Drew Gooden added 17 points and eight rebounds for the Bucks, who shot 68 percent in the first quarter to grab the lead and never trailed in defeating the Knicks for the fourth straight time.
Milwaukee, which came in averaging an NBA-worst 89.6 points, passed that point total by the end of the third quarter. The final point total was a season high.
Amare Stoudemire led the Knicks with 19 points.
Trail Blazers 100, Pistons 78
In Portland, Oregon, LaMarcus Aldridge had 19 points and 17 rebounds to power Portland past Detroit.
Nicolas Batum added 17 points for the Blazers who missed three-time All-Star Brandon Roy for much of the first half with a leg injury.
The Pistons, who dropped to 0-4 on the road, were led by Rodney Stuckey with 17 points.
Lakers 99, Timberwolves 94
In Los Angeles, the hosts moved to an 8-0 record for just the third time in franchise history after beating Minnesota.
Kobe Bryant scored 33 points and Pau Gasol added 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Lakers, who matched the 1987 to 1988 team for the second-best start in club history. Only the 1997 to 1998 Lakers were better, starting 11-0.
Yet Los Angeles never pulled away from the rebuilding Timberwolves, who lost their sixth straight. Kevin Love had 23 points and a career-high 24 rebounds for Minnesota, which lost its 12th straight to the Lakers despite getting within two points in the final minutes.
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