Last week: Won at Brooklyn 109-106 Sunday, won at Toronto 121-110 (OT) Tuesday, lost at Boston 112-93 Wednesday, beat Washington 112-103 Friday
This week: Sunday vs. Chicago, Tuesday vs. Atlanta, Friday vs. Lakers, Saturday at Dallas
The Miami Heat got blasted at Boston on Wednesday, but have still won four of their last five games and were 3-1 last week. Miami’s hyper-productive bench unit tailed off a bit last week, averaging 37.5 points per game — dropping their season average to 44.0 points per game, fifth-best in the NBA.
Even in the lopsided loss to the Celtics, Jimmy Butler had a game, scoring 37 points with six rebounds. For the week, Butler cruised to 26.8 points, 9.3 rebounds and 7.3 assists in 37.5 minutes per game, shooting 49.3 percent overall and draining 45.8 percent on 6.0 3-point attempts nightly.
Last week: Lost at San Antonio 135-133 (2OT) Tuesday, won at Toronto 119-109 Thursday, beat Phoenix 115-109 Saturday
This week: Monday vs. Sacramento, Wednesday at Cleveland, Friday at Orlando, Saturday vs. Detroit
The Houston Rockets still have a chance to be a perfect 3-0 last week. The club filed a protest with the NBA over their double-overtime loss in San Antonio, claiming that a James Harden dunk with 7:50 left in regulation was incorrectly negated. The bucket would have given Houston a 14-point lead in a game they eventually lost in overtime, so the two points might be kinda big.
Harden had an odd game against the Spurs, scoring 50 points on 11-of-38 shooting, hitting 4-of-20 from 3 and going a perfect 24-for-24 at the foul line, setting a new NBA record for most free throws in a game without a miss. For the week, Harden averaged 35.7 points, 7.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 4.0 steals in 42.7 minutes per game, shooting 34.2 percent overall and 23.8 percent on 14.0 deep tries a game.