NBA Scores And More: LeBron Burns The Magic, Spurs Tip The Lakers

LeBron James had 51 points as the Miami Heat escaped the Amway Center with a 104-100 win over the Orlando Magic. James’ performance was breathtaking in its completeness. The game lacked much in the way of defensive execution, but was just down-tempo enough that something like LeBron’s night shouldn’t have happened. He added eight assists to those 51 points, which means he scored or created by the pass about 80 percent of Miami’s offense ... in a win ... over a really good team.

The Heat led by as much as 23 in the fourth quarter before Orlando stormed back. The Magic went on a 21-4 run in the mid-fourth, sparked by Jameer Nelson and Jason Richardson. But by the time Orlando caught up, there were just 23 seconds left, meaning they had to play the foul game. They got lucky on a Mike Miller turnover with 10 seconds left and the margin down to three at 103-100, but Ryan Anderson couldn’t hit the tying shot and Dwyane Wade (remember him?) ended the game with a free throw.

As it turns out, rebounding did decide the outcome of the San Antonio Spurs’ 89-88 win over the L.A. Lakers on Thursday. The concern had been that the Lakers had rebounded poorly on defense all season, and that the Spurs’ superlative offensive rebounding, led by young DeJuan Blair, would exploit that. The irony of Antonio McDyess’ heart-jolting tip-in to seal the game is that the Lakers actually did a great job on the glass until that fateful moment. San Antonio had just nine offensive rebounds in 41 opportunities to that point, about average in a category the Spurs expected to win.

Of course, these things have a funny way of working out. And so McDyess ensured that rebounding decided the game with a brilliant tip at the buzzer.