Heat-Warriors Preview

Posted Jan 15 2013 1:15PM

Expect LeBron James to make history Wednesday night.

James needs 18 points to become the youngest player to reach 20,000 as the visiting Miami Heat try to avoid a season sweep by the Golden State Warriors.

The Heat superstar has been held below 18 points just once this season, a 15-point effort at Portland last Thursday. He has scored fewer than 18 just once in 17 games against Golden State (23-13).

Scoring 18 on Wednesday will mean that he will reach 20,000 at the age of 28 years, 17 days. The youngest to date to reach that milestone was Kobe Bryant, who got there when he was 29 years, 122 days old.

Thirty-seven players have scored 20,000.

"You look at how many players have come through this league, the history of the game," James said. "That 20K mark is very limited. How many guys have done that? It's very, very limited.

"It'll be big-time. I'm not going to shy away from that. I'm not a big stats guy as far as individual, but that'll be pretty cool."

In terms of games played, James would be the seventh-fastest in NBA history to join the 20,000 club. Wednesday will be his 726th regular-season game.

Wilt Chamberlain needed only 499 games to score 20,000, followed by Michael Jordan (620), Oscar Robertson (671), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (684), Elgin Baylor (711) and Allen Iverson (713). Shaquille O'Neal did it in 727 games.

Miami (24-12) will be looking to bounce back after dropping to 1-3 on this six-game trip with a 104-97 loss at Utah on Monday. James scored 32 as the Heat nearly rallied from a 21-point deficit.

Now Miami will try to avenge a 97-95 home loss to Golden State on Dec. 12. Jarrett Jack fed rookie Draymond Green for the winning layup with 0.9 seconds to go in one of many surprising wins this season for the Warriors, who overcame 31 points from James.

Golden State has matched its victory total from last season's 66-game campaign. The Warriors' success could lead to a second career All-Star appearance for forward David Lee, who has never played on a winning team nor previously been in the postseason.

Lee is second in the league with 23 double-doubles, including a 22-point, 14-rebound effort in last month's win against the Heat.

"We've turned the culture around," Lee said. "We've turned the wins and losses around and we just need to keep it that way."

Jack and Klay Thompson combined for 47 points in the first meeting while leading scorer Stephen Curry was held to nine - 11.5 below his average.

The Warriors had a 41-38 edge on the glass last month against the Heat, who have been outrebounded three times on this trip after the Jazz amassed a 40-23 advantage and outscored Miami 19-0 on second-chance points.

"It is not going to be easy," coach Erik Spoelstra told the league's official website. "Our road trip doesn't get easier. If we want a quality win, we have to give more."

The Warriors also enter as losers of three of four after getting outscored 37-18 in the fourth quarter of a 116-105 defeat at Denver on Sunday. Lee had 23 points and 13 boards but Jack and Thompson combined for 10 of Golden State's 18 turnovers.

James eclipses 20K points, Heat top Warriors 92-75

By ANTONIO GONZALEZ
Posted Jan 17 2013 2:10AM

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra and team president Pat Riley took a moment in the locker room late Wednesday night to give LeBron James the game ball and recognize his latest record.

Players shouted and huddled in the center of the room. Then, as Spoelstra said, "Everybody took a shot at him - a punch, a jab, an elbow, whatever they could get in before he started hitting back."

Just a small sampling of the hurt James has put on the rest of the NBA for the last decade.

James became the youngest player in league history to score 20,000 points and also surpassed 5,000 assists on a milestone night, leading the Heat to a 92-75 victory over the undermanned Golden State Warriors.

On a road trip that has had more bad news than good, James rewrote the headlines and the record books. He finished with 25 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds in just 30 minutes to grab his latest slice of history.

"It means everything," James said. "It means a lot. First of all, like I continue to say, it means I've been able to be healthy. To be out on the floor and do what I love to do, I love the game of basketball and I try to give everything to the game. And hopefully it continues to give back to me."

James eclipsed both marks before halftime, helped Miami go ahead by 34 points in the third quarter and allowed Spoelstra to rest his starters - without debate this time - for the fourth. Dwyane Wade added 15 points, eight rebounds and six assists and Mario Chalmers scored 15 for the Heat, who had lost three of their last four away from home.

David Lee had 12 points and 11 rebounds and Jarrett Jack scored 16 in place of Stephen Curry, who sprained his twice surgically repaired right ankle during Golden State's morning practice. The team said X-rays were negative, and Warriors coach Mark Jackson said he doesn't expect Curry to be out long.

The Warriors, who upset the Heat 97-95 in Miami on Dec. 12, lost consecutive games for only the third time this season. With center Andrew Bogut already out indefinitely recovering from left ankle surgery, Curry's absence turned out to be too much to overcome against the defending NBA champions.

"Disappointing, but we faced a team that remembered what took place in South Beach and came with a mindset to make a point, individually and collectively," Jackson said. "That's what great players do."

James and Wade just overwhelmed the Warriors from the start.

Wade lobbed an alley-oop from halfcourt that James finished with two hands early in the first quarter. James hit Wade slicing down the lane for a dunk moments later for his 5,000th career assist, and James made a 3-pointer after falling hard on his right elbow a play earlier to give the Heat a 23-14 lead.

James, who made 11 of 20 shots from the floor, surpassed the scoring mark when he dribbled from the wing and pulled up in the lane to make an off-balance jumper with 2:45 remaining in the second quarter to give him 20,001 career points. He needed 18 points entering the game to become the 38th NBA player to reach the milestone.

James said he knew before the shot he was a point away from the milestone.

"The best part about it is I was in a rhythm, too, so it wasn't one of those forced shots," he said. "I was able to get the switch on David Lee and get to the elbow and make a shot. It's pretty cool."

Previously, the youngest player to score 20,000 points was Lakers star Kobe Bryant, who got there when he was 29 years, 122 days old. James was 28 years, 17 days on Wednesday.

"He probably would've had it sooner if he didn't decide to come down here to South Beach," Wade said. "It's just a testament to him as a player."

James already was the youngest player in league history to win Rookie of the Year, record a triple-double, score 1,000 points, score 10,000 points and win MVP honors at an All-Star game. Only Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain (29 years, 134 days) and Michael Jordan (29 years, 326 days) reached the latest milestone before turning 30.

James also is the 13th player with 20,000 points and 5,000 assists. The only active players to reach both marks are Bryant and Boston's Kevin Garnett.

"That's a big-time moment," Spoelstra said. "He's a special guy. He's a special player. He's a once-in-a-generational type of player."

With the long-awaited record out of the way, James and Wade switched roles and opened the second half almost the same way the duo began the first.

Wade tossed an alley-oop just inside halfcourt to James while two Warriors defenders watched the three-time NBA MVP soar for the slam, part of a scintillating 26-6 surge filled with highlights to open the third quarter and put the Heat ahead 78-44.

In a 104-97 loss at Utah on Monday, Spoelstra sat Wade and played Chris Bosh for just 40 seconds in the fourth quarter in a decision that had been critiqued and questioned for the past two days by fans and national media. The Heat sliced a 19-point deficit to two without both before falling short.

This time, the Big Three watched the final 12 minutes smiling from the bench.

"Hopefully," Spoelstra said, "we can put to rest everything that happened the other night."

NOTES: In terms of games played, James is the seventh-fastest to join the 20,000 club. Wednesday was his 726th regular-season game. Chamberlain needed only 499 games to score 20,000 points. ... The Warriors fell to 13-3 against the Eastern Conference this season. The two other losses came against Orlando. ... Heat backup F Shane Battier returned after missing two games with a hamstring injury. He had two rebounds and finished 0 for 3 from 3-point range in 10 minutes.

Notebook: Heat 92, Warriors 75

Geoff Lepper, For NBA.com
Posted Thu Jan 17, 2013 2:07 AM - Updated Thu Jan 17, 2013 2:07 AM

THE FACTS: LeBron James became the youngest player in NBA history to score 20,000 points, and his Miami Heat cruised to a 92-75 victory against the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night.

James finished with 25 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds before being shut down early to conserve energy as the Heat wrap up their six-game, nine-day road trip Thursday in Los Angeles against the Lakers.

Dwyane Wade had 15 points, eight boards, six assists and five steals for Miami, which looked vastly improved compared to the performances in disappointing losses in Indiana, Portland and Utah on this trip.

The Warriors, making do without Stephen Curry after the point guard sprained an ankle during Golden State's shootaround Wednesday morning, looked discombobulated for much of the night. The point output was a season-low for Golden State, which has lost four of its last five games.

QUOTABLE: "It means everything. It means a lot. ... I try to give everything to the game, and hopefully it continues to give back to me."

-- LeBron James

THE STAT: With 2:45 left in the second quarter, James slid into the paint, slipping away from David Lee and pulling up for a hanging 12-foot jumper. When it swished through the net, James (28 years, 17 days) had surpassed Kobe Bryant, who was 29 years, 122 days old when he reached the 20,000-point plateau.

TURNING POINT: The Warriors' chance of pulling off a season sweep of the Heat -- Golden State won 97-95 in Miami on Dec. 12 -- cratered when Curry went down for the first time this season. A Warriors spokesman said the injury occurred when Curry stepped on the foot of teammate Festus Ezeli. Without Curry, who ranks eighth in the league in scoring (at 20.5 points per game) and 12th in assists (6.6), Golden State was susceptible to Miami's withering defensive pressure. Discomforted by the Heat's double teams on any pick-and-roll action, the Warriors committed 21 turnovers in the first half, Miami outscored Golden State 16-0 in terms of points off of turnovers.

QUOTABLE II: "The look in our guys' eyes and the activity and the commitment on [the defensive] side of the floor, that's something that we've really been trying to push. And we haven't quite gotten to that consistently yet on the road, so that was a good response."

-- Miami coach Erik Spoelstra

INSIDE THE LOCKER ROOM: Spoelstra said the Heat presented James with the game ball immediately after the contest, then "Everybody took a shot at him -- a punch, a jab, an elbow, whatever they could get in before he started hitting back."

QUOTABLE III: "It's a testament to him, how hard he works and how durable he's been. To be the youngest to do it -- it's a great feat and we're just happy to be a part of it."

-- Dwyane Wade

HOT: Mario Chalmers exploded after a relatively quiet first half, dropping three 3-pointers in Miami's 13-0 blitz to open the third quarter. That run nearly doubled the Heat's lead, from 14 to 27 points, and ended any suspense for ESPN's East Coast audience.

NOT: Klay Thompson, Curry's running-mate in the Warriors backcourt, finished 1-for-8 from the floor with his two points being more than offset by four turnovers. The poor shooting night continued a recent downward trend for Thompson, who had been slowly improving after a sub-40 percent October and November. Thompson is now at 39.9 percent for the season.

ROOKIE WATCH: Warriors forward Draymond Green continued the battle he joined with James in the Warriors' earlier win -- a victory Green sealed with a backdoor cut and layup with 0.9 seconds remaining. This time, James prevailed handily, even eliciting a technical on Green, who played through the garbage-time fourth quarter to finish with nine points, seven rebounds and four turnovers.

INSIDE THE ARENA: San Francisco 49ers players NaVorro Bowman, Dashon Goldson, Aldon Smith and Donte Whitner -- taking a break from their preparations for the NFC Championship Game against Atlanta on Sunday -- received a nice hand after being shown on the big screen during the second quarter

NOTABLE: James also surpassed the 5,000-assist barrier, feeding Wade for a dunk at the 6:42 mark of the first quarter. ... Regarding Curry's injury, Warriors coach Mark Jackson seemed optimistic that this wouldn't be a repeat of last season, when the point guard missed 46 of 66 games with right ankle problems. "I'm not a doctor, but I can't imagine it turning into something more [serious]," Jackson said. "We're not concerned." A team spokesman said Curry's "return will be based on his rehab." ... Miami forward Shane Battier returned after a three-game absence due to a strained hamstring. He seemed rusty, going 0-for-3 from the floor -- all of them 3-point attempts -- and finishing up scoreless. ... On a night full of milestones, Miami forward Udonis Haslem provided arguably the game's two best highlights, delivering a vicious putback jam in the first half, then slapping a loose rebound off the glass and in during the second half.

UP NEXT: For the Heat, Thursday @ Lakers, Wednesday vs. Toronto, Jan. 25 vs. Detroit. For the Warriors, Friday @ San Antonio, Saturday @ New Orleans, Monday vs. Clippers.

• Heat: Harrellson, Pittman
• Warriors: Bogut, Rush

• Heat: Chalmers
• Warriors: Green

• Lead Changes: 1
• Times Tied: 0

• Arena: ORACLE Arena, Oakland, CA
• Officials: #43 Dan Crawford, #45 Brian Forte, #38 Michael Smith
• Attendance: 19596
• Duration: 2:17