Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Jazz thumps Heat in OT

MIAMI (3rd UPDATE) - Paul Millsap scored a career-high 46 points, including a rebound basket to force over-time, and the Utah Jazz edged Miami 116-114 on Tuesday despite stellar showings from Dwyane Wade and LeBron James.

The Jazz rallied from a 22-point deficit and pulled level at 104-104 on Millsap's basket at the final buzzer of the fourth quarter. Utah claimed the victory on two free throws by Francisco Elson with 0.4 of a second remaining.

"It's speechless, to be down like that to a team like this and to come out with a win," Millsap said. "We clawed our way out of it. But this says a lot about our team."

Wade scored 39 points and James produced his 29th career triple double - double-digit totals in three categories - with 20 points, 14 assists and 11 rebounds, but the Heat still suffered their first home loss of the season.

"I think we panicked a little bit as a group," Wade said.

James produced the first triple-double for the Heat since Shaquille O'Neal in 2006 and his seventh in a losing cause, a defeat he credited in large part to the skills of Utah's Jerry Sloan, the longest-tenured active NBA coach.

"Jerry Sloan is one of the best coaches we have in our league," James said. "He kind of figured out what we wanted to do."

The Heat, 5-3, missed five shots in the last two minutes of over-time to equalize or seize the lead, the last by Eddie House at the concluding buzzer.

Utah's Deron Williams scored 21 points and added 14 assists while Andrei Kirilenko contributed 16 points for the Jazz, who had lost their six prior games at Miami.

"At some point in the year, unfortunately, we have to go through something like this," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

Chris Bosh added 17 points for the Heat and lamented his team's inability to shut down the Jazz at the start of the second half.

"We came out flat in the third quarter," Bosh said. "We didn't have the sense of urgency that we needed. We had a chance to put them away and we didn't."

Only seven other players have scored as much as Millsap did in one game against the Heat, a list that includes James, Michael Jordan, Vince Carter, Alex English and Gilbert Arenas.

"He got easy buckets, a lot of easy buckets," Bosh said of Millsap. "I had never seen him hit a three before."

Kirilenko's 3-pointer with 1:50 remaining in over-time gave the Jazz, now 4-3, a 112-111 edge but the Heat pulled level at 114-114 on a Wade 3-pointer with 17 seconds remaining.

Elson was fouled by Wade near the basket on the final Jazz possession and Elson made the winning free throws inside the final half-second.

Millsap had averaged 6.9 points in eight prior games against Miami, but beat the Heat by sparking Utah to 42 points in the fourth quarter with 11 of his own in the last 28 seconds, including two 3-pointers in the final 12.1 seconds.

"The man was on fire," said Wade, who connected on only 12 of his 23 shots.

"I guess when it rains, it pours," Millsap said.

The Heat ran off 15 consecutive points at one stretch in the first quarter on the way to a 51-32 half-time lead.

No comments: