Close encounter
Surging San Antonio was on the verge of a sweep during a Monday night matchup against the Trail Blazers in Portland.
The Spurs’Kawhi Leonard shoots as the Trail Blazers’Robin Lopez (42) and ex-Longhorn LaMarcus Aldridge (12) look on in the first quarter, during Game 4 of theirWestern Conference semifinal series. The gameended too late for a story to appear in this edition.
HEAT102, NETS96: LEBRONSCORES 49, MIAMI TAKES 3-1 LEAD,
LeBron James tied his playoff career high with 49 points, Chris Bosh made the tiebreaking 3-pointer with 57 seconds left, and the Miami Heat beat the host Brooklyn Nets 102-96 onMonday night for a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
James carried the Heat nearly the entire way until Bosh hit the shot that put Miami ahead for good. Ray Allen followed with four free throws and James finished it off with one more, putting the Heat in position to wrap it up at home Wednesday in Game 5.
James was 16 of 24 from the field and 14 of 19 from the free-throw line in matching the 49 points he scored for Cleveland against Orlando in the 2009 Eastern Conference finals. He missed his second free throw with 1.1 seconds left, muttering to himself after it fell out.
The Nets were 15 of 25 from 3-point range in their Game 3 victory but only 5 of 22 in this one.
DwyaneWade scored 15 points on the night his Heat postseason record of 46 points was shattered.
Cavaliers: Coach Mike Brown was firedMonday for the second time in four years by owner Dan Gilbert, who last April brought back the only coach to get the Cavs to the finals, but then dismissed him after the team failed to make the playoffs.
The Cavs went 33-49 this time under Brown, who had four years remaining on his contract. Brown was fired last year by the Los Angeles Lakers just five games into his second season.
Clippers: The interim CEO hand-picked by the NBA to run the Los Angeles Clippers says he’s confident the league will succeed in forcing a sale of the team.
Dick Parsons arrived in Los Angeles onMonday to meet with management and staff of the Clippers. In more Clipper news, the league said if Donald Sterling’s ownership of the team is terminated, so is Shelly Sterling’s.
Hours after Shelly Sterling said she would fight to keep her ownership of the franchise even if her estranged husband can’t, the league said that wouldn’t be possible.
“Under the NBA constitution, if a controlling owner’s interest is terminated by a three-quarter vote, all other team owners’ interests are automatically terminated as well,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said in a statement.
“It doesn’t matter whether the owners are related as is the case here. These are the rules to which all NBA owners agreed to as a condition of owning their team.”