NBA: Lakers lose against the Heat as Warriors rallied past the Utah Jazz

(Basketball news) Los Angeles lost against the Miami Heat 113-107 as they moved up to the summit of the Eastern Conference table. For the Heat, Duncan Robinson scored 25 points as Butler finished with 20 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists for Miami, his 10th regular-season triple-double for the Heat which is one more than James had in his four Miami seasons. Along with Butler’s performance, Caleb Martin scored 15, Bam Adebayo scored 14 and Gabe Vincent had 11 for Miami. For the Lakers, James carried the Lakers yet again, finishing with 33 points – his 17th consecutive game with at least 26 – and 11 rebounds. Russell Westbrook scored 24 for the Lakers, former Heat guard Avery Bradley added 15 and Carmelo Anthony scored 11. With this result the Miami Heat improved their record to 30-17 as the Lakers moved below .500 with a record of 23-24 which has moved them down to 8th in the Western Conference.

''I think those are important experiences to go through together,'' Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

''To have those kinds of pivotal moments down the stretch, you can never have enough of those,'' Robinson said. ''They're invaluable.

''I'm in one of the best zones offensively I've been in in my career,'' James said.

''In the fourth quarter we played the type of basketball we want to play, but we dug ourselves too much of a hole early in the game,'' James said.

The Warriors grinded out a tough 95-92 victory over the Utah Jazz. For the Warriors, Curry scored 13 points, struggling again with his 3-point stroke as he went 1 for 13 from deep and 5 of 20 overall, Jordan Poole scored 20 points as Curry's brother-in-law Damion Lee did his part, coming off the bench to hit four clutch 3-pointers and score 12 points. For the Jazz, Bogdanovic, who recently came back from an injured left ring finger, scored 21 points while Rudy Gobert grabbed 18 rebounds to go with 12 points for the Jazz, who lost their fourth straight to the Warriors. It was a total team effort from the Warriors as six players were in double digit scoring. With this result the Warriors improved their record to 34 -13 as they stayed 2nd in the Western Conference standings.

''They're still attached to my body and I'm still getting plenty of attempts,'' the two-time MVP said following another off-night,

''I'm trying to have fun with this. It's a big-picture perspective on how you approach the game, the work that you put in. It's obviously frustrating. I want to shoot the ball, it's frustrating. I kicked the chair the other day for that reason,'' he said. ''It's not like I don't care and not trying to figure it out but I don't get preoccupied with it.''

''Steph looks great physically. The last few games he's playing some of his basketball in terms of handling the point guard duties,'' Kerr said. ''He's taking care of the basketball, he's playing great defense, shots just aren't going. … He's seemed inhuman for so long. I think everybody just expects him to be in a groove all season long and it's just not the way it works.''

''That's how you've got to win when you're scuffling a little bit,'' Kerr said. ''Really proud of the team.''

The Brooklyn Nets suffered a shock defeat to the Minnesota Timberwolves 136-125. For the Timberwolves, Anthony Edwards scored 25 points, D'Angelo Russell had 23 points and 10 assists as Karl-Anthony Towns overcame a poor shooting night, scoring 15 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter to rally his team to victory, along with that Jaylen Nowell scored 16 points, Taurean Prince had 15, and Jaden McDaniels added 14. The three went 18 for 26 from the floor, including a perfect 6-for-6 night from Prince. For the Nets, Kyrie Irving scored a game-high 30 points while Patty Mills hit five 3-pointers on the way to 21 points. Kessler Edwards added 15 points, and James Harden had 13 points and 13 assists for Brooklyn, which is 2-2 since losing leading scorer Kevin Durant to a sprained ligament in his left knee. With this result the Nets dropped down to second in the Eastern Conference with a record of 29-17.

''It doesn't have to be me every night,'' said Towns, Minnesota's leading scorer and rebounder. ''That's why we have great talents like D'Angelo Russell and Anthony Edwards. You've got to be able to lean on them. They can carry the load just as well as myself.''

''Those guys are coming in, bringing their own energy and spice to the game,'' Russell said. ''That takes the pressure off everybody.'

''I don't know that we gave enough resistance, weren't into the body enough,'' Nets coach Steve Nash said. ''Didn't feel like our will, our force, was felt defensively. Whatever it was, we didn't have the juice down there tonight. … We tried to find a way to hang in and see if we could get on a run defensively. We just never did.''

Also read: NBA: Lakers snap out of their losing streak and Bucks overcome top seed Bulls

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