Miami's big guns end losing run at 2
James, Wade and Bosh all have 20-plus points to get Heat back on track
LeBron James scored 25 points and Chris Bosh added 24 as the Heat beat the winless Washington Wizards 103-93 to end a rare two-game slide.
Dwyane Wade scored 20 points for Miami, who haven’t dropped three straight regular-season games since January last year. The Heat had 32 assists on 37 field goals, including all nine of their baskets in the third quarter.
“That’s what we do,” James said. “We understand that it’s easy for everyone when we move the ball, share the ball and we play like that.”
Bradley Beal scored 19 points and Marcin Gortat finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Wizards, who shot 43 percent and allowed the Heat to convert 21 turnovers into 25 points.
“I thought we battled well,” Beal said. “We still had a few breakdowns on defence and didn’t make a lot of shots on offence. But we did a great job moving the ball. We just have to knock down shots and limit our turnovers as much as possible.”
With two defeats in three games to open this season, it marked only the second time since James, Bosh and Wade teamed up that the Heat took the court with a losing regular-season record. The other was after their first game together in October 2010.
In other games, the Pistons beat the Celtics 87-77 to keep first-year coach Brad Stevens winless, Magic had a 107-86 win over the Nets, the Thunder topped the Suns 103-96, the Timberwolves beat the Knicks 109-100 and the Lakers edged the Hawks 105-103.
At Orlando, Nikola Vucevic had 19 points and 12 rebounds as the Magic routed Brooklyn in Jason Kidd’s coaching debut.
Magic rookie Victor Oladipo scored 19 points, 14 in the second half, as Orlando won back-to-back games for the first time since last December. Andrew Nicholson added 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Magic.
Kevin Durant had 33 points and 10 rebounds and Russell Westbrook had 21 points and seven assists in his return from a knee injury for Oklahoma City.
Westbrook, sidelined for six months after injuring his right knee during the second game of the NBA playoffs, then having a medical setback, returned three to five weeks ahead of the team’s previously announced timetable.
At New York, Kevin Love had 34 points, 15 rebounds and five assists and Kevin Martin scored 30 points to help Minnesota improve their winning start to 3-0 for the first time in 12 years.
At Los Angeles, Xavier Henry scored 18 points and Pau Gasol hit two tiebreaking free throws with 6 seconds remaining for the Lakers.
