Heat 95, Raptors 89
LeBron James had 30 points and nine rebounds and Dwyane Wade scored 25 points as the Miami Heat notched a 95-89 victory over the visiting Toronto Raptors on Sunday.
Chris Bosh tallied 12 points and Mario Chalmers added 11 as Miami won for the 10th time in 12 games to improve to 18-6, the second-best record in the Eastern Conference behind the Chicago Bulls.
DeMar DeRozan scored 25 points for Toronto, which fell into a last-place tie with the New Jersey Nets in the Atlantic Division.
Miami made 29 of 34 free throws and held off a late-game charge by the Raptors.
The Heat led 85-70 midway through the final quarter before Toronto scored 12 straight points. Linas Kleiza and Jerryd Bayless connected on back-to-back 3-pointers and Bayless added a jumper to cut Miami’s lead to 85-82 with 3:23 remaining.
James broke the Heat’s four minute-plus drought with two free throws. He then stole the ball from Kleiza and scored on a dunk to get Miami’s lead back to seven with 2:07 to play and the Heat held on.
Bayless and Kleiza scored 17 points apiece for Toronto.
DeRozan kept Toronto close in the first half with 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Wade had 17 and James had 15 in a half that ended with the Heat possessing a 53-48 lead.