A dominant 2nd quarter catapulted the Heat to their 8th consecutive victory in Detroit on Friday. Miami led this one from start to finish and kept the large crowd at The Palace at Auburn Hills pretty subdued. It took the Heat just over 7 minutes to grab a double digit lead, but a 10-0 run to start the 2nd quarter is what really got the ball rolling.
What pushed the game out of reach was the way that Spo's crew closed out the 1st half. A Tayshaun Prince triple about halfway through the quarter trimmed the Heat lead to 43-36. Miami then closed the half on a 21-7 run that was beautiful to watch. The interesting thing was that they did it with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade spending about half the run on the bench, and without LeBron James scoring a single one of the 21 points.
The 2nd half was more a formality, which happens when a team that's 24 games above .500 is beating a team that's 13 games below .500 by 21 points at the break. One of the more interesting stories of the night was LeBron uttering a profane warning to some jerk of a fan who was yelling some not so nice things about James' mother. LeBron's kids, who were sitting courtside, may not have heard what their daddy said to the fan, but if you were watching the game on Sun Sports then there's a good chance you caught it.
GAME NOTES
- The Heat bench continues to shine, laying 29 points on the Pistons last night.
- Chris Bosh picked up his first double double since returning from his 4-game absence. He finished with 17 points and 10 boards.
- Mike Miller had 16 points off the bench, his largest output since his 32-point game a few weeks ago.
- LeBron came up 2 rebounds shy of a triple double. Seems like every night he flirts with one. He finished with 16 points, 8 rebounds, 10 assists and 4 steals.
- D-Wade wasn't that far off either, leading the way with 24 points, 8 boards and 7 assists.
- For just the 9th time this season James Jones didn't hit a triple.
- The 39 points scored by the Heat in the 2nd quarter was the most scored by Miami and most given up by Detroit in any quarter this season.
The timing is pretty perfect, isn't it? Miami moves into the top spot in the Eastern Conference right before they play Boston again. Not much more to say about it then that. See you Sunday!