NBA Thursday: Heat top Clippers, Lakers stun Rockets

To stem the tide and keep the ball out of Harden’s hands, Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni decided to muck up the game and use a strategy that had been used against him the year before: Hack-A-Dwight.

Afterward, Harden admitted to Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports that the Hack-A-Dwight took him out of his rhythm:

Lawson scored 10 points in the last five-plus minutes of the game, including a huge three with just under a minute left to give the Nuggets a five-point lead. The diminutive point guard did have some shaky moments after that, committing a turnover and missing a free throw, but the Nuggets still pulled out a 109-107 victory to notch their first victory of the season.

Lawson finished the night with 23 points, eight assists and seven rebounds while shooting 9-of-16 from the field and 3-of-5 from long range. After the game, Lawson admitted to Terry Frei of the Denver Post that the Nuggets’ 0-3 was “weighing on everybody” and that it felt good to finally get the “monkey off our back.”

On a night that had extra meaning due to the past couple years of Dwight Howard’s team-hopping saga, the hero would end up being Steve Blake, aka the Blake Mamba.

Nevertheless, Houston held a small lead with seconds remaining. Los Angeles bungled their penultimate play, nearly turning the ball over on the baseline. Then they followed it with a doozy, a three-point attempt right over the object of their passionate ire.

The Lakers were on fire from beyond the arc in the first half, making 11 of their 15 attempts (78 percent). The Lakers scored 64 points through the first half. Blake hit three of his four three-point attempts through the first two quarters. He finished with 14 points and four field goals from behind the three-point line.

• Flannery: Life in the NBA’s cellar

Basically, they play tag.

RUN AWAY!

• Flannery: Life in the NBA’s cellar

• Ziller: Barnes, not Klay, is the Warriors’ money problem

The Heat shot 54 percent for the game, but it was their championship-level defense in the second half that made the difference. Opponents are piling points on the Clippers these days, but not many have been able to slow them down offensively. Miami’s blitzing scheme isn’t like most, however, and it was brilliant after halftime.

The Heat held Los Angeles to just 41 points in the final two quarters, and a late Clippers run fell short as they appeared to run a little low on gas.

• Flannery: Life in the NBA’s cellar

• Ziller: Barnes, not Klay, is the Warriors’ money problem

TNT’s play-by-play announcer Kevin Harlan had never come across a moment of profanity on air during his 30-plus years of broadcasting. Thursday night, however, he needed to do a live promo for HLN’s new cooking show “Cook Your Ass Off.” Harlan, jokingly unsure of the massive FCC fines that could be levied on him for uttering a word that would make America’s children’s ears shrivel up and fall off, avoided saying it at first.

Eventually, helped by the support of Reggie Miller, he rose to the occasion and simply shouted it out for all of Miami to hear.