Heat use 17-0 run to turn back Suns

Author: 
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Publication Date: 
Wed, 2012-03-21 18:59

James finished with 20 points, Dwyane Wade had 19, and Udonis Haslem added a season-high 15 for the Heat, who survived two huge late scares — a double-digit hole, and a frightening collision between James and Grant Hill in the final minute.
James was chasing a long pass and never saw Hill, crashing into him. James went down, failing on his first attempt to get up and stayed on the court holding his head for about a minute. He remained in the game.
Hill led Phoenix with 19 points. Marcin Gortat had 13, Markieff Morris 12, Jared Dudley 10 and Steve Nash finished with nine points and 10 assists.
The Suns had the NBA’s second-best record since Feb. 19, having won 11 of their last 14 coming in. Shannon Brown’s 3-pointer with 7:29 left put Phoenix up 90-80, but the Suns missed their next 10 shots.
In New York, Amare Stoudemire had 22 points and 12 rebounds, Jeremy Lin added 18 points and 10 assists, and New York Knicks made it four straight easy victories since Mike Woodson replaced Mike D’Antoni as coach.
Carmelo Anthony and Tyson Chandler each scored 17 points for the Knicks, who bring a week’s worth of momentum to Philadelphia on Wednesday night for a matchup with the Atlantic Division-leading 76ers.
DeMar DeRozan scored 17 points for the Raptors. Jose Calderon had 11 points and nine assists in his return from a five-game absence with a sprained right ankle, but backup Jerryd Bayless was lost to a left hip pointer in the second half.
In Houston, Goran Dragic hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 28 seconds left and finished with 16 points and 13 assists in Houston’s comeback victory over Los Angeles.
Down by nine with 5 minutes left, the Rockets had a 12-0 run to take the lead.
Luis Scola and Courtney Lee scored 23 points apiece for the Rockets. Kobe Bryant had 29 points, and Pau Gasol added 21 for the Lakers.
In Portland, Oregon, Drew Gooden scored 19 points and Milwaukee beat Portland in the Trail Blazers’ first home game since coach Nate McMillan was fired last week.
Carlos Delfino had 16 points, and Monta Ellis added 14 points and nine assists to help the Bucks win their sixth straight game.
LaMarcus Aldridge had 21 points and 12 rebounds for the Blazers. The only other bright spot for Portland was Brandon Roy, who made his first appearance at the Rose Garden since his abrupt retirement at the start of training camp.
In Salt Lake City,  Paul Millsap scored 20 points, Al Jefferson had 16 and Devin Harris added 15 to lead Utah past Oklahoma City for its fourth straight victory.
Millsap had a dunk and a fallaway jumper to help the Jazz finish the game on a 10-4 run.
Russell Westbrook had 23 points for Oklahoma City, and Kevin Durant had 18, but went scoreless in the fourth quarter and misfired on all seven attempts from the field in the period.
The Thunder have lost four of their last seven games. The NBA’s most efficient offense went 6 of 21 in the fourth quarter and committed 20 turnovers in the game.
In Indianapolis, Danny Granger scored 25 points to help Indiana beat Los Angeles.
Granger added eight rebounds and made all eight of his free throws.
Reserves Tyler Hansbrough, George Hill and Leandro Barbosa helped Indiana’s backups outscore the Clippers’ reserves 50-23. Hansbrough scored 17 points, Hill had 15 and Barbosa 12 in his first game for Indiana since being acquired from Toronto last week. Roy Hibbert added 13 points for Indiana.
Blake Griffin had 23 points and 10 rebounds for the Clippers.
In Sacramento, California, Marcus Thornton scored 31 points, DeMarcus Cousins had 23 points and five rebounds before fouling out and Sacramento held off Memphis for its third straight victory.
Thornton added seven rebounds and six assists, and Tyreke Evans returned after missing the last two games because of a sprained left ankle, scoring nine of his 13 points in the fourth quarter.
Rudy Gay had 23 points and six rebounds, and Marc Gasol added 15 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists for the Grizzlies, who began a stretch of nine of 11 games away from home. Memphis has three of its last four.
 

Taxonomy upgrade extras: