>Heat 98, Hawks 90

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LeBron James collected 34 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists as the visiting Miami Heat maintained their grip on the No. 2 spot in the Eastern Conference with a 98-90 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Monday.

Dwayne Wade added 21 points and Chris Bosh scored 15 for the Heat (57-24), who stayed one game ahead of the Boston Celtics with one left to play.

Miami started out red-hot, shooting 63 percent (26 of 41) in the first half to cruise into the break with a 62-46 advantage. James and Wade were a combined 15 of 21 for 36 points before halftime.

The Hawks stepped up on the defensive end after the break, holding the Heat to 17 points in the third and beginning the fourth with a 21-9 burst to pull even, 88-88, with 3:29 remaining.

But after entering the game James Jones converted a four-point play that put the Heat back on top, 92-88. Wade blocked two straight shots on the other end and Jones drained another from beyond the arc to seal it.

Josh Smith had 17 points and six rebounds for Atlanta (44-37).

>NBA results, March 14

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For the Miami Heat, there was symmetry in the turnabout. Lose by 30 in San Antonio, win by 30 in Miami.
Chris Bosh scored 30 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, Dwyane Wade scored 29 and the Heat got some payback for their worst loss of the season by rolling past the NBA-leading Spurs 110-80 on Monday night.
LeBron James finished with 21 points, eight assists and six rebounds for the Heat, who have won three straight and moved two games back of Eastern Conference front-runners Boston and Chicago. Miami lost 125-95 in San Antonio on March 4, the midpoint of a five-game slide that now seems all but forgotten after wins over the Lakers, Grizzlies and the Spurs.
Tony Parker scored 18 points and Tim Duncan added 14 for the Spurs, who had won 15 of their last 18 against Miami.
Lakers 97, Magic 84:
Pau Gasol scored 23 points, Kobe Bryant added 16 while playing on a sprained left ankle, and host Los Angeles roared in the second half for its 10th win in 11 games. … Andrew Bynum had 10 points, a career-high-tying 18 rebounds and four blocks. … The Lakers (48-20) also drew virtually even with the Mavericks (47-19) for second place in the Western Conference standings. … Dwight Howard had 22 points, 15 rebounds and nine turnovers – four more than the entire Lakers squad – for Orlando.
Thunder 116, Wizards 89:
Kevin Durant had a game-high 32 for visiting Oklahoma City. … Kendrick Perkins had nine rebounds in his Thunder debut.
Nuggets 114, Hornets 103:
Ty Lawson scored 23 points and Denver hit 17 three-pointers in New Orleans. …Chris Paul scored a game-high 27 points and had 10 assists.
Grizzlies 105, Clippers 82:
Zach Randolph had 30 points and 12 rebounds to help host Memphis snap a two-game skid. … Blake Griffin was held to eight points and nine rebounds, his fourth straight game without a double-double.
Rockets 95, Suns 93:
Kevin Martin scored 23 in Houston, as the Rockets ended a seven-game skid… Jared Dudley missed a potential game-winning three-point try for Phoenix, which played without Steve Nash.
Jazz 112, 76ers 107:
Led by 30 points from Al Jefferson, Utah pulled out a home victory in overtime.
Nets 88, Celtics 79:
Deron Williams scored 16 points and made the clinching three-pointer for host New Jersey. … Glen Davis posted 16 points and 14 rebounds for Boston. … The Nets have won five straight, their longest win streak in three years.
Briefly:
Bulls forward Carlos Boozer remains day to day even though his sprained left ankle continues to improve. … Portland has signed center Chris Johnson of the NBA Development League’s Dakota Wizards for the rest of the season.

>Lakers give one away against the Heat, 94-88

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Eight-game winning streak ends with poor play down the stretch.The Lakers could have finally wished their fans a Merry Christmas, along with a belated apology for their behavior back in December.
Instead, they gift-wrapped a game Thursday and handed it to the Miami Heat.
The Lakers’ messy last two minutes led to Miami’s 94-88 victory and ended two streaks at once — the Lakers’ eight-game surge and the Heat’s five-game skid.
There was no getting even for a humiliating loss to Miami on Christmas Day after Kobe Bryant committed two late turnovers and missed two long three-point attempts, one from 28 feet at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Bryant wasn’t the only one at fault. Ron Artest missed an open layup attempt with 1:04 left.
Merry March, Miami.
Or as Andrew Bynum said in his own way, “We tricked it, for sure. We definitely had an opportunity to win this game and we gave it away.”
Their game Saturday in Dallas is more important to the Lakers, but this one was taken plenty seriously.
Bryant warned teammates the previous day not to stay out late in always-rocking South Beach and to make sure the game was the focus of their trip to Miami.
He had 24 points on a poor shooting night (eight for 21) and was still angry about it 30 minutes after the game. So he returned to the court and shot a slew of three-pointers and mid-range jumpers as three Heat ball boys fetched rebounds and fed him passes.
His Lakers T-shirt was wet with sweat by the time he finished. He played almost 40 minutes in the game and stayed on the court for more than an hour afterward.
“It’s my job,” Bryant said. “This is what you’re supposed to do if you’re not feeling comfortable with something and you feel like you can tweak some things.”
The game ended feebly for a team that had been playing so robustly, beating Portland, Oklahoma City, San Antonio and Atlanta on the road since the All-Star break.
Bryant started it by coughing the ball up to Dwyane Wade, who fed LeBron James for a dunk and 90-88 lead with 1:27 to play.
Then Artest missed his easy shot.
Then Bryant lost the ball out of bounds while going up for a shot down low.
Then he lofted an off-balance, 28-foot, three-point attempt.
By the time the misfires were added up, the Lakers had lost, though Coach Phil Jackson took the blame. As everyone knows, he rarely calls timeouts and often still has one or two in his pocket for end-of-game situations. This time, he called his last one with 46 seconds to play and the Lakers down by four.
“I really took responsibility for screwing up the end of the game,” he said. “I had no timeouts…”
As for Artest?
“I should have made the layup, but they grabbed my arm, I got hit in my head, and then, well, goaltending too possibly, right?” Artest said. “But that’s an excuse, man. I should have made the layup.”
The Lakers initially thought the Heat took the rebound with the ball still in the cylinder but stepped back from their thinking after conferring with their video coordinator.
The Heat couldn’t be happier, ending a five-game losing streak that tugged on the franchise and its celebrated trio of All-Stars.
“This was a very big game and we had everything riding on it,” said Heat forward Chris Bosh, who complained about his touches earlier this week and had 24 points on 10-for-17 shooting Thursday.
James had 19 points, nine assists and eight rebounds. Wade had 20 points.
The Lakers still have a chance to make their four-game trip highly successful. The overachieving Mavericks beckon.