Wade gets 34, Heat pull away to beat Bucks 101-89
For three quarters, the Miami Heat looked stagnant, nothing like the team with the NBA's best record over the last five weeks.
One big run was all the Heat needed to break free again.
Dwyane Wade scored 34 points, LeBron James added 25 points and nine assists, and the sizzling Miami Heat pulled away in the fourth quarter to beat the Milwaukee Bucks 101-89 for their 19th win in 20 games.
Chris Bosh finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds for the Heat, who trailed most of the third quarter before putting together a 32-13 burst, sealed by a 13-0 run in the final minutes.
It was Miami's final home game for two weeks; the Heat start a five-game, 10-day trip in Milwaukee on Friday. Miami has won 11 straight away from home.
John Salmons scored 18 points for Milwaukee, which got 16 from Andrew Bogut and 14 from former Heat guard Keyon Dooling. The Bucks were outrebounded 47-34.
Wade delivered the knockout blow with 6:51 left, a 3-pointer from just off the top of the key for an 85-74 lead. Bogut had a tip-in with 4:38 left to make it 88-81, but Wade made three free throws after getting fouled beyond the arc, Mario Chalmers made a pair of 3-pointers 72 seconds apart, and suddenly the lead was 101-81.
Something about playing good teams on the road has brought out the best in the Bucks so far this season, a trend that continued at Miami.
Milwaukee came into the game only 5-11 away from home, the 19th-best road mark in the 30-team NBA. But some of the wins — over the Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas and Atlanta, for example — and even an overtime loss in Boston in early November have suggested the Bucks are capable of more.
It's a lesson the Heat learned in this one.
Up by 11 after Bosh made a jumper with 7:36 left in the first half and looking comfortable, the Heat quickly went cold, and Milwaukee took advantage. Miami shot 2 for 9 the rest of the quarter, with five turnovers, and the Bucks outscored Miami 23-8 — 14 of those points coming from the foul line — to close the period with a 51-47 lead.
Miami's drought without a field goal lasted nearly 6 minutes before James made layups on consecutive fast-break possessions to tie it at 54 early in the third. Just about everything the Heat tried offensively was at the rim in the third: Of their eight field goals in the quarter, seven were inside of 15 feet, five were either layups or dunks.
The only exception on that list seemed to provide a bit of Miami momentum.
Bucks coach Scott Skiles got his second technical of the game with 1:20 left in the third, though wasn't ejected because referees deemed the latter to be "non-unsportsmanlike." On that possession, James Jones hit a 3-pointer — Miami's first of the game in seven attempts — to start a 10-2 run that gave the Heat a 78-70 lead with 11:12 remaining.
NOTES: Bogut airballed a free throw — badly, even by air ball standards — with 6:31 left. ... Rick Ross and Ciara were among those courtside. ... Wade added another entry to the highlight reel, coming down the lane — from out of the televised picture, even — for a one-handed hammer dunk on a putback that gave Miami a 56-55 lead in the third quarter. ... Injured Heat forward Udonis Haslem said before the game he's targeting a "late March" return. He ruptured a ligament in his left foot on Nov. 20. ... The Bucks play in Orlando on Wednesday.
