Quick Hitters
PHOENIX — Former Phoenix guard Goran Dragic scored a season-high 29 points in the Miami Heat’s 126-115 victory over the Suns on Wednesday night.
The Heat made 12 3-pointers, shot 53.1 percent overall and never trailed. The Suns lost their fourth straight.
Dragic scored 10 points in the third quarter. The Heat took a 94-86 lead into the fourth and opened the final period with a 7-0 run.
Phoenix made it 112-106 on Devin Booker’s jumper with 2:53 to play, but got no closer.
Hassan Whiteside added 23 points, 10 rebounds and four blocked shots for Miami.
Booker led Phoenix with 30 points, and Mike James had 18.
Guard Dion Waiters, playing in his first game since last Friday, made a layup to give the Heat a 47-31 lead with 9:18 to go in the second quarter for Miami’s largest lead of the first half. Waiters was away from the Heat for the birth of his daughter and returned to score 16 points.
The Suns went on an 11-1 run to cut the lead to six, but Waiters’ 3-pointer with 10.8 seconds gave the Heat a 69-54 halftime advantage. The 69 points was the highest total in a half for the Heat this season.
The Heat led by as many as 14 points in the first quarter. Phoenix hit five of its last seven shots of the quarter, and cut the lead to 36-27.
Baynes lifts Celtics over Lakers for 10th straight win
BOSTON — Aron Baynes matched his career high with 21 points, Kyrie Irving scored 19 and the Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers 107-96 on Wednesday night for their 10th straight victory.
Baynes also had eight rebounds and three assists, and Boston improved to 10-2 even as Al Horford sat out after being placed in concussion protocol earlier in the day. The Celtics also lost rookie forward Jayson Tatum late in the second quarter, when he went to the locker room with a sore right ankle.
Boston led by 20 in the second quarter before letting the lead shrink to two in the third. Los Angeles then struggled down the stretch, shooting 5 of 18 from the field with six turnovers in the final period.