LeBron James leaped as high as he can soar. Dwyane Wade shot better than he ever has before.
And when the Miami Heat stars are on their games like that . . . "We probably won't lose," James said.
Such was the case Monday night. James scored 27 points, Wade had 26 and the Heat pulled away in the second half to beat the Atlanta Hawks 101-92, improving to 10-1 at home this season.
James (10 for 16) and Wade (11 for 13, the best single-game shooting percentage of his career) made 21 of 29 shots for Miami, which shot 58 per cent as a team. Chris Bosh had 14 points and 10 rebounds and Norris Cole made all four of his shots to score 10 for the Heat, who handed the Hawks just their second loss in 11 games.
"Just trying to be as efficient as I can," Wade said. "Shooting 13 shots, it's nothing I'm used to. Some nights you go for 11-for-13. Some nights you go 3-for-13. But you just try to continue to be aggressive."
Josh Smith scored 22 points and Al Horford finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds for Atlanta, which briefly held the lead midway through the third quarter before the Heat got rolling and moved 1 1 /2 games ahead of the Hawks in the Southeast Division. Atlanta has dropped both games against Miami this season.
"We gave LeBron and D-Wade some opportunities to be able to get some layups early on and whenever you play against a team like that or whenever you give a great player opportunities to get layups first, the rim gets that much bigger," Smith said.
BLAZERS 92, RAPTORS 74
PORTLAND, Oregon - LaMarcus Aldridge had 30 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Portland Trail Blazers to a 92-74 victory over the Toronto Raptors in a game that was overshadowed by injuries for both sides.
J.J. Hickson added 16 points and 11 rebounds for the Blazers.
The Raptors lost forward Andrea Bargnani to a right elbow injury and guard Kyle Lowry to a right shoulder problem during the game.
