Miami – Everyone in the arena seemed to watch the flight of Antoine Walker’s 3-point try with 33 seconds left. Apparently, no one wearing a Miami Heat uniform saw Greg Buckner going the other way.
Fortunately for Denver, Andre Miller did.
He grabbed the rebound of Walker’s miss and found Buckner for an easy layup that put the Nuggets ahead to stay in their 100-92 win over the struggling Heat on Friday night.
Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade put on an offensive showcase, each finishing with a season high in points: Anthony 40, Wade 37.
But the Nuggets simply executed better than the Heat down the stretch, finishing the game on a 12-0 run that sent Miami to a fourth straight loss and dropped its record to a mediocre 10-10.
“You give up a run-out to lose the game, you deserve to lose,” Heat coach Stan Van Gundy said. “Plain and simple, you deserve to lose. Nobody should feel sorry for you or nothing else. … If you haven’t learned things like that over your time in the league, you’re not experienced. You’re just old.”
Anthony was 13-of-30 from the field and 13-of-14 from the foul line, finishing one point shy of his career high. Marcus Camby had 18 points and 12 rebounds for the Nuggets, who opened a six-game road trip.
“It was definitely fun to watch. … Melo was spectacular,” Camby said.
Wade was 10-of-23 from the floor, 17-of-21 from the line and added 10 rebounds for the Heat, which led by four with 2:01 left but wound up losing to the Nuggets for the second time in less than a week. Denver won 101-99 on its home floor last Saturday.
“It was a great game with two great players,” Nuggets coach George Karl said. “When we went down four we kept playing, kept staying with it. Fortunately we figured out how to make Dwyane Wade miss a shot.”
Walker had 17 points for Miami, which got 13 from Gary Payton – the 1,000th double-digit scoring effort of his career, most among active NBA players.
Payton had eight points in a 1:34 stretch of the fourth, including a layup following Wade’s steal to give Miami a 91-88 lead with 2:35 left. James Posey added a free throw for a 92-88 edge 34 seconds later.
Camby’s jumper with 47 seconds left drew Denver into a 92-all tie, and after Walker missed the 3-pointer, Buckner’s easy layup helped seal Miami’s fate in a hotly contested game, one with 16 ties and 23 lead changes.
Buckner finished with 14 points and Miller had 12 points and eight assists for the Nuggets, who won for the third time in nine road games this season.
With Wade and Anthony carrying their respective clubs, the teams entered the fourth quarter tied at 67.
Anthony had 16 of Denver’s 25 third-quarter points, including a jumper with 5.2 seconds left that tied the game for the 10th time.
Wade scored 14 consecutive Heat points over a seven-minute stretch of the third, ensuring that Miami never trailed by more than four in the period.
“It was fun competition out there, him doing what he’s doing and me doing what I’m doing,” Anthony said. “At the end of the game, it’s all fun and games.”
That’s easy to say after a win.
