Heat enjoy banner night in victory

MIAMI — Miami was leading the NBA in scoring defense. Charlotte was leading in scoring offense.

Defense won.

Jimmy Butler scored 32 points, Bam Adebayo had 26 points and 19 rebounds on the night his Olympic gold-medalist banner was unveiled and the Heat held on late to beat the Hornets 114-99 on Friday night.

Tyler Herro scored 26 points off the bench for Miami, which wasted most of a 26-point first-half lead. Duncan Robinson added 10 for Miami. The Heat outrebounded Charlotte 60-37, and held the Hornets to 39 percent shooting.

“The IQ level of this team is very high,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We have experienced, savvy guys, but guys who can read situations in real time. That matters in this league.”

Gordon Hayward scored 23 points and Miles Bridges had 22 for Charlotte. Kelly Oubre Jr. scored 17 points and Cody Martin had 15 for the Hornets, while LaMelo Ball struggled through a 2for-14 night from the floor.

“It’s one of 82. We’ll learn from it. We’ll respond,” Hornets coach James Borrego said. “I saw a lot of fight tonight.”

Miami was 190-1 over the last 25 seasons in games where it led by at least 26 points. The only 26-point lead that was blown by the Heat in that span was one at Boston in a regular-season finale in April 2016.

The record is 191-1 now, though it didn’t come easily.

“I thought at the end of the half, we lost our intensity,” Adebayo said. “And then we picked it up again in the second half.”

Durant draws fine for angry ball toss

Kevin Durant was fined $25,000 by the NBA on Saturday for forcefully throwing the ball into the stands, a play that a referee acknowledged should have led to the Nets star’s ejection.

Durant was fouled with 4:40 left in the third quarter of Brooklyn’s 105-98 home victory over the Indiana Pacers on Friday night. He then grabbed the ball and threw it hard well past the basket into the crowd.

Durant was called for a technical foul, but crew chief Sean Wright said after the game that he should have been thrown out.

“In real time, the official that made the call did not think the ball entered the stands with force,” Wright said. “After seeing the video postgame, we did see that the ball did go into the stands with force and Kevin Durant should’ve been ejected.”

Anthony hits six 3s in Lakers’ win

Just a handful of games into their first NBA season as teammates, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony sometimes already look like they’ve been playing together for their entire careers.

These 19-year veterans still have plenty to give to each other and to the Los Angeles Lakers, who rolled to their first comfortable win of the season behind their veteran leaders.

James scored 26 points, Anthony added 24 while hitting six 3-pointers and the Lakers snapped the Cleveland Cavaliers’ three-game winning streak with a 113-101 victory Friday night.