19:49
Muhammad Aslam
.JPG)
It was a typical Christmas get-together of old family members — a little awkward at the beginning, then a nice gift to make everyone happy and finally hugs all around.
LeBron James hugged or high-fived pretty much everyone in the building after losing to his old team 101-91 on Thursday at AmericanAirlines Arena — even Burnie the Heat mascot got some love — and when it was all over the post-game friendship fest ended at midcourt with one final embrace. James gave Dwyane Wade one final hug for the road and then it was all over.
Christmas with LeBron capped an emotionally turbulent two days for the Heat (14-16). The team lost to the four-win Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday, and then the resilient Heat players regrouped and redeemed themselves with perhaps their most important victory of the season. Wade had a game-high 31 points and the Heat, led offensively by Danny Granger, outscored the Cleveland Cavaliers 24-17 in the final quarter. Granger had seven of his nine points in the final period.
James finished with 30 points, including nine in the fourth quarter, but his new teammates retreated from the moment in crunch time. Cleveland shot 31.6 percent (6 of 19) in the fourth quarter, and the team had 16 assists to 15 turnovers throughout the game.
The Heat had 27 assists, including eight from Luol Deng, the small forward the Heat picked up this summer to replace James. Deng had a very LeBron-like stat line, scoring 25 points to go along with eight rebounds and those eight assists. It was Deng’s first 25-8-8 night of his career.
“I thought as a team we just did a good job of just bouncing back,” Deng said. “Obviously Philly played a great game here and we feel that we gave away that game because we were up by so much, and it really was one of those games where we couldn’t sleep at night.
“I thought we came back in and we had a good practice and good walk-through, and everybody was just so focused [Thursday night].”
The Heat led by as many as 17 points in the first half, but the Cavaliers (17-11) rallied in the second and third quarters and took the lead at 78-77 on a breakaway dunk by James 40 seconds into the final period. James was then hit with a technical foul for hanging on the rim, and the Cavs never led again.
The Heat held on for the victory after former Heat player Mike Miller missed a three-pointer with 1:43 to play that would have cut Miami’s lead to five points. Granger answered on the Heat’s next possession with a clutch 10-foot jumper. After playing injured for several years, and battling a scary cough last week, Granger says he is feeling a little like the player who starred for the Indiana Pacers before knee surgery robbed some of his best years.
He finished with nine points, including seven in the fourth quarter. His three-pointer with 2:37 left answered a three-pointer by Miller and gave the Heat a six-point lead.
“It felt like old times for me,” Granger said. “I always put myself in the mind-set of all those years when I played in Indiana and made big shots in those fourth quarters, and that’s what it kind of felt like [Thursday night].’’
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