Mavs rally to edge Heat
Dirk Nowitzki scored 30 points and Josh Howard had 20 points and drew a game-saving foul with 2.3 seconds left, giving the Dallas Mavericks a 98-96 victory over the Miami Heat Wednesday night.
The Heat led by 11 late in the third and were up by four with several minutes left, but a series of bad possessions – culminated by Mario Chalmers’ charging foul into Howard when Dwyane Wade was asking for the ball or a timeout – ruined it for Miami.
Raptors 99, Magic 95: Chris Bosh had 24 points, including a 22-footer over Dwight Howard with 29 seconds left that put the game out of reach, and Toronto beat Orlando.
Jose Calderon had 21 points, and Shawn Marion added 17 points and 15 rebounds for the Raptors, who nearly blew an 11-point lead before holding on to extend their season-high winning streak to five games. Rashard Lewis missed a potential tying rgeww-pointer with 20 seconds left to seal Toronto’s win.
Dwight Howard had 30 points and nine rebounds for Orlando (55-19), which fell percentage points behind Boston for the Eastern Conference’s second seed. The Magic host first-place Cleveland on Friday night in a game that lost has now lost some of its luster.
The Raptors made sure of that.
Marion had consecutive fast-break dunks, and Calderon hit a three-pointer after a three-point play to cap a 15-3 run that gave the Raptors an 11-point lead with a minute left in the third quarter. It was the largest lead for either team in an up-and-down game that had 21 lead changes and little defense, but it would quickly evaporate.
Hedo Turkoglu made a three-pointer, then converted a three-point play after being fouled by Joey Graham on a driving layup to cut Toronto’s lead to 84-81 early in the fourth quarter. Toronto’s 26 made free throws to Orlando’s 13 proved too much.