(Basketball news) The Miami Heat edged out the in-form Los Angeles Clippers as they beat them 115-110. For the Heats, Adebayo had 31 points and 10 rebounds, Jimmy Butler added 26 points as Tyler Herro scored 19 and Caleb Martin finished with 17 points. For the Clippers, Paul George finished with 29 points, eight rebounds and seven assists as Reggie Jackson scored 20 for the Clippers, while Nic Batum and Marcus Morris Sr. each added 11. The Clippers were without Kawhi Leonard – he’s now missed 20 of 27 games this season. With this result the Miami Heats improved their record to 12-14, which is the 10th best in the Eastern Conference – but only two games back of No. 4 Brooklyn.
”If we worry about ourselves, I feel like we’re going to be all right,” Adebayo said.”We gave Jimmy the ball, and let him do his thing down the stretch,”
”We just had too many breakdowns is what it came down to tonight,” George said. ”They’re a good team.”
”You’ve just got to try to do what you can do to stay afloat, and the mindset you’ve got to have and the culture you set is no matter who’s on the floor, you’ve got to think you can win the game,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. ”That’s been our mindset since I’ve been here.”
”Both teams were going back and forth, pretty much the whole game,” Spoelstra said. ”Our approach from the very beginning was this was going to take the whole 48 minutes, if not more … and stack play after play after play.”
The Denver Nuggets got a narrow win over the Portland TrailBlazers as they beat them 121-120. For the Nuggets, Murray scored 21 points in a memorable moment in his return after missing all of last season recovering from knee surgery as he scored the game winner while Aaron Gordon had 20 points and Bones Hyland added 13 off the bench as Jokic had 33 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists for Denver, which rallied from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter to snap a three-game losing streak. For the Blazers, Damian Lillard had 40 points as Jusuf Nurkic had 21 points and nine rebounds, but Anfernee Simons was 3 for 12, missing all six attempts behind the arc.
”It was a play for (Nikola Jokic) to get space and let him work,” Murray said. ”He fumbled it a little and he told me to come get it. I turned and looked at the clock, saw that I didn’t have to rush and I just went into my move.”
”I told Jamal going into this season you have to learn that it’s a process, because you’re back,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. ”You’re going to be better in a month, Christmas, and postseason as you continue to get right. And tonight is a nice step in that direction.”
”It wasn’t handled well at all,” Chauncey Billups said. ”We’re up two. The last shot you can live with is a 3. A 2 don’t beat us. We go into overtime, no big deal. We gave up a 3-point shot. It was terrible.”
Also read: NBA: Cavs beat Lakers in LeBron’s home return while Dallas win
