Twenty-three.
Despite the game of his life from Jeff Green. And the man who got it done at the end for the Miami Heat was none other than Mr. Unanimous, as he shall be called after all the MVP votes are tallied. Shall we rename the MVP rankings The Race For Second Place?
Meanwhile, the Nuggets’ win streak reached 12 with a controversial finish in Chicago, the Lakers scored the fewest points of any team playing except the Hornets, and the Knicks salvaged a single ‘W’ from their trip out West. Quite a night in the association.
Queue the theme from Rawhide … “Rollin,’ Rollin’ Rollin’ …
- Five years to the day after the Celtics snapped Houston’s winning streak at 22 games, LeBron James scored 37 points and made the go-ahead basket with 10.5 seconds left in Miami’s 105-103 victory at Boston — their 23rd in a row. After overcoming the largest deficit they’ve faced during their streak (19 points), the Heat need 10 more wins to catch the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers, who won 33 in a row. Green scored a career-high 43 points for Boston, which was without Kevin Garnett for the second straight game. Paul Pierce missed a 3-pointer with 3 seconds left that could have given Boston the win.
- Andre Iguodala made a 3-pointer with 7.1 seconds left in overtime of the Nuggets’ 119-118 win over Chicago, as a late basket by Joakim Noah was disallowed. Noah grabbed a shot from teammate Marco Belinelli that was on its downward path to the basket and slammed it home. The officials initially didn’t blow their whistles, but when Denver called an immediate timeout and loudly complained that it was goaltending, the referees reviewed video and wiped away the bucket.
- J.R. Smith scored 18 of his 20 points in the second half for the Knicks, who had lost games at Golden State, Denver, Portland and the Clippers by an average margin of 20 points. New York remained a game ahead of the Nets for the No. 3 spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Brooklyn defeated Detroit 119-82, leading by as many as 43 on the opener of an eight-game road trip.
- A sprained ankle forced Kobe Bryant to miss a second straight game, and Luis Scola scored all 14 of his points, including his second 3-pointer of the season, and grabbed eight of his nine rebounds in the fourth quarter of a 99-76 rout of the Lakers, who remained 8th in the West, tied in the loss column (34) with Utah, which lost at home for only the ninth time this season.
- If the Dallas Mavericks are going to make a final push for a 13th consecutive playoff berth, they can use their 127-113 victory over the playoff bound Atlanta Hawks as a springboard. The Mavs are 4 games behind the Lakers. “We’ve got 15 left and we’re going to throw the kitchen sink at all 15,” coach Rick Carlisle said.