Grizzlies end Heat’s streak

Associated Press

MIAMI — Dwyane Wade knew during pregame warmups that the Miami Heat were going to have a long night. By the end of the first quarter, the Memphis Grizzlies let everyone else know that Wade was right.

Rudy Gay scored 17 points, Zach Randolph had 14 points and 14 rebounds off the bench, and the Grizzlies put seven players in double figures to snap Miami’s 17-game home winning streak by beating the Heat 97-82 on Friday night.

Memphis led wire-to-wire, the first team to do that on Miami’s home floor since Boston on Nov. 11, 2010.

“A great team win from the beginning to the end,” said Memphis guard Gilbert Arenas, who scored 12 points. “We played hard. We outplayed them. They missed shots they normally make but we were there for every single one of them.”

Mike Conley and Marreese Speights each scored 15, and Marc Gasol and O.J. Mayo added 10 apiece for the Grizzlies, who have won six of eight.

LeBron James finished with 21 points, six assists and six rebounds for the Heat, who failed in a bid to match the franchise’s longest home win streak, set in the 2004-05 season. Miami committed 11 turnovers in the first quarter — its most in any period since Feb. 14, 2006 — and never recovered.

“When we turn the ball over, we’re not that good,” James said. “We understand that. We know that. We don’t care when we have attack turnovers, guys getting into the lane and trying to make plays for others and make a turnover. We had a few careless ones. We had easy layups, a few crosscourt passes. Just careless.”

Wade scored 20 points, Chris Bosh added 19 and Terrel Harris scored 10 for Miami, which last lost at home on Jan. 22 to Milwaukee.

Miami (39-15) fell three games behind Chicago (43-13) in the race for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Heat have 12 games left, the Bulls have 10, and the teams go head-to-head twice more before the postseason begins.

“They just beat us,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Really, the tale was that first quarter. … The lack of concentration and focus in that first quarter, we couldn’t make up for that.”

The Heat struggled shooting the ball again, finishing at 40 percent.

It was the second time in two weeks that Memphis got seven players into double figures. Another good sign for the Grizzlies: Arenas had been 3 for 13 from 3-point range in his first six games with Memphis, but was 4 for 5 on Friday.

Memphis came into the night only two games out of fourth in the Western Conference, and coach Lionel Hollins talked beforehand about the importance of getting sharper heading into the postseason.

His team must have listened, because it came out flying.

“The first time I looked up at the scoreboard we were up 15 points,” Hollins said. “We were playing well and we had a lot of people do a lot of good things.”

The Grizzlies led 25-12 after the first quarter behind nine points from Gay. By halftime, the lead was 48-32, the second-lowest scoring first half for the Heat since the first game of the Big Three era, the opener at Boston last season.

“They did a great job,” said Wade, who noted he feared even during the pregame layup line that energy was going to be lacking. “We beat ourselves as well. … Just one of those nights.”

Just about every number imaginable for the Heat in the early going was bad.

Wade missed two dunks in the first half, shooting 1 for 7. Midway through the second quarter, Bosh was shooting 4 for 5 and Harris 2 for 2 off the bench — while everyone else in a Miami uniform was shooting 1 for 17 at that point.

There were chances in the third for Miami to get the lead into single digits, all of them thwarted.

The first one came when Conley stole the ball from Mario Chalmers, a sequence capped by Quincy Pondexter getting a dunk. And then about 3 minutes later, Miami endured maybe its most frustrating possession of the night.

James spun and tried a left-handed layup with 4:25 left in the third, the ball rimming out but Miami’s possession extended when Joel Anthony was fouled going for the rebound. James then attacked the lane for a jumper that missed, with the Heat getting that rebound as well and Harris finding James underneath the rim.

His layup — his third shot of the possession — came up short, a microcosm of Miami’s night.

“I just absolutely missed it,” James said. “It was a (tale) of what type of game we were playing.”

Arenas’ fourth 3-pointer of the night came with 9:40 left, giving the Grizzlies an 81-64 lead. Mayo stretched the lead to 86-66 with another 3-pointer midway through the fourth, and the Grizzlies soon finished it off.

“We knew they were going to make a run but we withstood it,” Randolph said. “We kept playing and got stops.”

SPURS 128, HORNETS 103

SAN ANTONIO — Tim Duncan scored 19 points to lead San Antonio to its 10th straight win and moving the Spurs atop the Western Conference.

Manu Ginobili and Patty Mills scored 14 points each and Stephen Jackson and Gary Neal added 13 apiece to help the Spurs sweep the four-game season series against New Orleans.

Eric Gordon, playing in only his second game in three months, scored 31 points to lead the Hornets, who have lost four of their last five games.

The win, coupled with Oklahoma City’s loss to Indiana, moved the Spurs percentage points ahead of the Thunder for first place in the West. A loss by Houston later Friday against the Los Angeles Lakers would clinch San Antonio’s 15th consecutive playoff berth.

PACERS 103, THUNDER 98

INDIANAPOLIS — Danny Granger scored 13 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter to help Indiana win its fourth straight.

Roy Hibbert had 21 points and 12 rebounds, David West scored 14 points and Paul George added eight points and a career-high 16 rebounds for the Pacers, who have won eight of 10.

Kevin Durant scored 44 points for the Thunder, the most against the Pacers this season. Russell Westbrook had 21 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists, but he shot 7 for 23 from the field as the Thunder lost their third consecutive game.

The Thunder, second in the league with 103 points per game, have scored fewer than 100 in four straight.

NETS 110, WIZARDS 98

NEWARK, N.J. — Deron Williams had 19 points and 13 assists in fighting off the lingering effects of the flu, leading New Jersey past fading Washington.

Gerald Wallace added 19 points and reserve Anthony Morrow had 17 as the Nets won for the fourth time in six games to keep their microscopic playoff hopes alive with nine games left in the season.

Before the game, the Nets said starting center Brook Lopez would be sidelined for the rest of the season because of injuries to his right foot and ankle. He played in five games.

John Wall had 18 points, six rebounds and four assists for the Wizards, who have dropped five straight and 10 of 11.

CAVALIERS 84, RAPTORS 80

TORONTO — Antawn Jamison scored 16 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, Lester Hudson had a career-high 23 points and Cleveland snapped a nine-game losing streak.

Samardo Samuels scored 10 points as the Cavaliers outscored the Raptors 33-17 in the fourth to avoid a sixth loss in seven meetings with Toronto. The Raptors shot 5 for 19 in the fourth.

Cavaliers coach Byron Scott wasn’t around to see his team’s first win since March 19 at New Jersey. Scott was ejected with 53 seconds left in the first half after a brief but fiery argument with referee Kane Fitzgerald. It was the first ejection of the season for Scott, who was replaced by assistant Paul Pressey.

HAWKS 101, PISTONS 96

ATLANTA — Jeff Teague tied a career high with 24 points and had a season-high 11 assists, and Josh Smith added 20 points and 12 rebounds to help Atlanta hold off Detroit.

The Hawks have won two straight and three of four to hold the No. 5 spot in the Eastern Conference.

Rodney Stuckey finished with 27 points for the Pistons, who ended a three-game winning streak. Detroit had won five of six overall, but now stands 6-22 on the road.

The Hawks got 16 points apiece from Joe Johnson and reserve big man Ivan Johnson.

BUCKS 95, BOBCATS 90

MILWAUKEE — Monta Ellis had 25 points and nine assists to lead Milwaukee.

Byron Mullens scored a career-high 31 points and tied his career high with 14 rebounds, becoming the first Bobcats player to score at least 30 points this season. Kemba Walker added 18 points, and Bismack Biyombo had 14 points and 14 rebounds.

Gerald Henderson turned a bad pass by Ersan Ilyasova into a layup that gave the Bobcats an 84-83 lead with 3:42 to play. Ellis answered with two free throws and Brandon Jennings made a fast-break layup to push the lead and momentum back in Milwaukee’s favor. Ellis made another layup and Jennings hit a 5-foot jump shot as Milwaukee led 91-84 with 1:30 left.

TRAIL BLAZERS 99, MAVERICKS 97, OT

DALLAS — LaMarcus Aldridge’s buzzer-beating 17-foot jumper lifted Portland past Dallas in overtime.

Raymond Felton scored 16 of his season-high 30 points during Portland’s 30-10 surge in the third quarter. Aldridge, a former Dallas-area high school star who finished with 25 points and 12 rebounds, made the fallaway jumper over the Mavericks’ Brendan Haywood at the overtime buzzer for the victory and was mobbed by teammates at center court.

Jamal Crawford added 14 points for the Blazers, who’ve won four of six to remain in playoff contention with 10 games left.

Dirk Nowitzki had 23 points and 14 rebounds, and Jason Terry scored 18 points to lead Dallas.

JAZZ 104, WARRIORS 98

SALT LAKE CITY — Al Jefferson scored 30 points and Devin Harris added a season-high 28 to help Utah snap a two-game home losing streak.

Gordon Hayward’s late jumper and steal sealed the win for the Jazz, who are ninth in the Western Conference but only three games out of the No. 5 spot.

David Lee led the Warriors with 26 points while Klay Thompson added 23 on 9-of-16 shooting.

Harris missed Wednesday’s 107-105 loss to Phoenix because of a sprained left ankle. He started strong with 12 first-quarter points and scored the first 10 points of the fourth quarter.

The Warriors committed 17 turnovers.

NUGGETS 105, SUNS 99

DENVER — Arron Afflalo had 30 points, Andre Miller scored 13 of his 15 in the fourth quarter and Denver scored the final nine points to beat Phoenix.

Shannon Brown scored 18 points and Steve Nash had 14 points and 11 assists for the Suns, who had their three-game win streak snapped.

The Nuggets took sole possession of seventh place in the Western Conference, a half-game ahead of idle Houston and 1 1/2 in front of Utah. The Suns dropped to 10th place, a half-game behind the Jazz.

The win also gave Denver the tiebreaker against the Suns, as the Nuggets have won the teams’ first two meetings — including a 109-92 victory on Feb. 14. They play again April 24 in Phoenix.