Wade’s 28 lift Miami over OKC
MIAMI—The last lead change belonged to Dwyane Wade, and with it a win went to the Miami Heat.
Wade scored 28 points, including two free throws with 1.5 seconds left that put Miami ahead to stay and the Heat topped the Oklahoma City Thunder 97-95 on Thursday night in a wild back-and-forth game that featured 38 lead changes and 11 ties.
Chris Bosh scored 16 points and Goran Dragic added 14 for Miami, which survived when Russell Westbrook’s 3-point try from the right wing bounced off the backboard as time expired.
“That felt like the playoffs,” Wade said. “That was our best game of the year. From start to finish we really executed. We took the individual challenge. They’ve got two of the greatest players in our game and they’ve got a good team so this is our best win of the year.”
Westbrook and Kevin Durant each scored 25 for Oklahoma City, which misfired on a pair of 3s in the final 10 seconds. Durant missed a 3-pointer and Bosh grabbed the rebound, calling time with 7.7 seconds remaining.
That set up the possession where Wade drove, drew a foul on Serge Ibaka and put Miami ahead for good. Westbrook then missed the finale, leaving him scoreless in the game’s final 16 minutes.
No other NBA game entering Thursday had more than 25 lead changes this season —and in Wade’s 13-season career with the Heat, no Miami game ever had more than 31.
It was theater, all the way to the end. NUGGETS 106, RAPTORS 105 TORONTO— Wi l l Barton came off the bench to score 22 points and Danilo Gallinari added another 21 as the Denver Nuggets stopped an eightgame losing streak, beating the Toronto Raptors 106-105 Thursday night.
Denver avoided its first nine-game losing streak since the 2002-03 season, when it dropped 14 in a row.
Joffrey Lauvergne had 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Nuggets.
DeMar DeRozan scored a Raptors’ season-high 34 points and Kyle Lowry had 16.
The Nuggets never trailed, with Gallinari’s jump shot 1:41 into the game putting them ahead to stay. A desperation 3 by Lowry as time expired closed the final deficit to one point.
Toronto appeared to make a game of it by starting the third quarter on an 11-3 run. But Gallinari made three 3-pointers and the Nuggets led by 10 going into the final period.
Rookie point guard Emmanuel Mudiay had eight assists in the first half and Denver shot at a 47.8 percent clip, taking an 18-point lead.