Miami streak reaches 25
Down by double digits, Heat rally past Pistons
MIAMI— It’s becoming almost commonplace now, this trend of the Miami Heat getting off to slow starts and having to dig their way back from double-digit deficits. Apparently, they do not mind. LeBron James scored 29 points, Dwyane Wade added 19 and the Heat extended their winning streak to 25 games by pulling away in the second half and beating the Detroit Pistons 103-89 on Friday night.
Miami trailed by as much as 11 in the first half before moving within eight of tying the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers for the longest winning streak in NBA history.
“We don’t get caught up in things like that, saying that we’re untouchable,” said James, who also finished with eight assists and eight re- bounds. “We know we can be beat by anybody, any night, if we don’t come in with the mindset to play our game.” Just this week alone, they rallied from 17 points down to win at Bos- ton, then pulled off the wild 27point, second-half comeback to prevail at Cleveland. No real dramatics were needed Friday, especially after Miami allowed only 35 points after halftime. “We were a little flat in the first half,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “But in the second half, the urgency was much better, created a lot more opportunities off of our defense.” Miami’s magic number for clinching the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference is now three. The Heat also remained 11⁄ games up on San Antonio, which needed overtime to beat Utah, for the league’s best record. Greg Monroe finished with 23 points and 15 rebounds for Detroit, which dropped its 10th straight game. Ex-Raptor Jose Calderon had 18 points and seven assists for the Pistons, who also got 18 points and eight rebounds from Kyle Singler.
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