Heat Rout Bobcats for 14th Straight Win
MIAMI – Dwyane Wade used an array of dunks and a spectacular blind over-the-shoulder flip to score 26 points and lead the Miami Heat to their 14th straight win, 113-90 Saturday night over the Charlotte Bobcats.
Wade made 11 of 16 shots and added nine assists for the Heat, who have the NBA’s longest winning streak this season. Miami turned the game into a blowout with a 27-12 third-quarter burst.
Shaquille O’Neal added 16 points for Miami (25-7), which had all five starters score in double figures and moved 6 1/2 games ahead of Cleveland for the Eastern Conference’s best record.
The Heat shot a season-high 59.2 percent from the floor and made it look easy – no one more so than Wade.
With 3:53 left in the third quarter, he dribbled past Charlotte’s Kareem Rush and drove down the left side of the lane. Brevin Knight stepped in front, and wrapped both arms around Wade – who turned his back from the basket, tossed the ball over his shoulder and looked back to watch it fall through the hoop.
Emeka Okafor had his 19th straight double-double – 17 points and 10 rebounds – for Charlotte, which also got 14 points from Jason Hart. The Bobcats’ starters were outscored 78-41 by Miami’s opening lineup.
The Heat’s winning streak is the NBA’s longest since New Jersey won 14 straight last season. The last team to win more consecutively was O’Neal’s Los Angeles Lakers, who had a 19-game run during the 1999-2000 season on the way to a championship.
Foul trouble sent O’Neal to the bench twice in the first half – but Miami pulled away on both occasions.
O’Neal picked up his second foul with 3:33 left in the first and Miami trailing 18-15, but the Heat closed the quarter with a 13-2 run to build an eight-point lead. When O’Neal went out with three fouls, Miami outscored Charlotte 14-4 in the last 3:32 of the half to take a 55-43 edge.
Outside of a 2-for-7 first-half showing from the foul line, Wade added plenty of entries to his burgeoning highlight reel. He had three dunks in the second quarter, the first coming on a two-handed slam after he dribbled uncontested down the lane for a 33-26 lead.
On Miami’s next trip, he took a perfect back-door bounce pass from Christian Laettner for another dunk. And with 1:28 left in the half, Laettner found the cutting Wade again for a slam that put Miami up 50-39.
Charlotte was within 63-56 after consecutive baskets by Gerald Wallace early in the third, but another dunk by Wade – this time a reverse dunk after a three-quarter court pass from Damon Jones – capped an 11-1 run in a 1:19 stretch that swelled Miami’s lead to 74-57.
Rush had 10 points, and Knight finished with seven assists for Charlotte, which lost its fifth straight.
Notes:@ Miami led at halftime for just the fifth time during the winning streak. … Charlotte fell to 1-13 on the road, the worst mark in the East. … Actor Jamie Foxx, who earned a record three Golden Globe nominations for his 2004 work in “Ray,”"Collateral” and the prison drama “Redemption,” was at the game, as was producer Jerry Bruckheimer. … Heat C Wang Zhi-Zhi played five minutes, his first action in nine games. He scored seven points.