Tyler Herro led the Miami Heat to a dominant 134-93 win over LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday, handing the Lakers their worst defeat of the NBA season.
Herro poured in 31 factors, together with 21 in a red-hot third quarter, and knocked down 9 of the Heat’s franchise-record 24 three-pointers.
Jimmy Butler added 17 factors, whereas Bam Adebayo posted 14 factors, 10 rebounds and 7 assists. The Heat set a franchise file with 42 assists, sustaining their offensive momentum in opposition to a sluggish Lakers crew.
Already up by 17 at halftime, Herro’s explosive third-quarter efficiency, which included seven three-pointers, matched the Heat’s file for many in a interval.
“We came into this game with great energy, and you see what happened,” Adebayo mentioned.
The Lakers, coming off a 29-point loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday, regarded listless on each ends of the ground.
“I’m embarrassed. We’re all embarrassed,” Lakers first-year coach JJ Redick mentioned. “It’s not a game where we had the right fight, the right professionalism.”
“There has to be some ownership,” he added. “I own this, but there’s going to have to be some ownership on the court.”
There had been encouraging indicators for James, who got here in mired in a capturing stoop and scored a team-high 29 factors on environment friendly 12-of-18 capturing.
The league’s all-time main scorer additionally ended his streak of 4 straight video games with no three-pointer, making one in all his 4 makes an attempt from past the arc.
That trey was the two,451st of his profession, passing Kyle Korver for seventh on the league’s all-time checklist.
That will likely be little comfort now that the Lakers have misplaced six of their final eight video games.
Redick mentioned the Lakers are struggling on each ends with “base-level game plan stuff.”
But a pissed off James mentioned it wasn’t a matter of the sport plan. “If you don’t want to come to compete … that’s other issues,” he mentioned.
On Friday, the Lakers face the Atlanta Hawks, who snapped the Bucks’ seven-game successful streak with a 119-104 victory in Milwaukee.
Jalen Johnson scored 23 factors and grabbed 13 rebounds for Atlanta, and De’Andre Hunter added 20 factors off the bench because the Hawks notched their fifth straight victory.
Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 31 factors and teammate Damian Lillard added 25, however Milwaukee could not construct on an early 10-point benefit.
The Hawks took the lead late within the first quarter and by no means trailed once more.
Celtics beat Pistons
The NBA champion Boston Celtics shrugged off the absence of celebrity Jayson Tatum, main by as many as 20 factors in a 130-120 victory over the Detroit Pistons.
With Tatum and Jrue Holiday sidelined with knee accidents, Jaylen Brown stepped up and led the Celtics with 28 factors and 9 assists.
Brown scored 23 factors within the first half to place Boston on the highway to victory, and the Celtics weathered a late Pistons surge to finish the wire-to-wire victory.
Kristaps Porzingis, nonetheless getting again to type after getting back from ankle surgical procedure in November, scored 26 factors, grabbed 9 rebounds and blocked two photographs for Boston.
Cade Cunningham had a close to triple-double of 27 factors, 9 rebounds and 14 assists, and Tobias Harris added one other 27 factors for Detroit.
The Orlando Magic bounced again from a blowout loss to the New York Knicks with a 106-102 victory over the injury-depleted 76ers in Philadelphia.
The Sixers, with Paul George and star middle Joel Embiid each sidelined, minimize a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to 1 with 22.3 seconds remaining, however the Magic closed it out with free throws from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs.
Wagner scored 35 factors to guide the Magic, whereas rookie Jared McCain’s 24 led the 76ers.
On the heels of their Monday win over the Lakers, the Minnesota Timberwolves posted one other huge win in Los Angeles, thrashing the Clippers 108-80.
Source: www.dailysabah.com