Rockets extend win run
MIAMI (AP) – Dwyane Wade is completely convinced LeBron James is still the best basketball player in the world.
And the Miami Heat accepted the challenge of slowing him down.
Kelly Olynyk scored a game-high 19 points, Wade blocked a pair of shots by James as part of a stifling defensive effort by Miami, and the Heat had little trouble on the way to beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 98-79 on Tuesday night.
Wade finished with four blocks, two of them from behind to thwart James, and afterward the close friends got together and laughed like always.
“That’s one thing about us – we don’t brag about what we do against each other,” James said. “We talk about what we do against everybody else.”
Josh Richardson and James Johnson each scored 15 points for Miami, which led 54-34 at halftime and has won 10 of its last 11 home games. Wade finished with 12 against the team he spent part of this season with before getting traded back to Miami.
“We did a great job,” Wade said. “One of our best defensive games since I’ve been here, for sure.”
The Heat held Cleveland to a season-low point total, a shocking number when considering the Cavs had scored 120 in each of their previous four games. James finished with 18 points for the Cavaliers, who were without Kevin Love in the second half because of what was initially diagnosed as a loose tooth and then changed to concussion-like symptoms.
ROCKETS 118, BULLS 86
In Houston, Eric Gordon scored 31 points and tied a career high with eight 3-pointers on a night James Harden sat out to rest, and the Houston Rockets got their 10th straight win with a 118-86 rout of the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday night.
Trevor Ariza added 21 points and Chris Paul had 13 points and 10 assists in his return after missing the last three games with a sore hamstring.
The NBA-leading Rockets became the first team since San Antonio in the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season to have three winning streaks of at least 10 games in a season. They won 14 in a row from Nov. 16-Dec. 18 and 17 straight from Jan. 28-March 7.
