MIAMI (AP) -Dwyane Wade scored 35 points, Mark Blount added 10 of his 19 in the fourth quarter, and the Miami Heat beat the Indiana Pacers 98-96 Saturday to snap a 15-game skid – the longest in the NBA this season and the second-longest in franchise history.
Wright had 14 points and 10 rebounds, Udonis Haslem scored 12 points and Earl Barron added 10 for Miami, which got eight assists from Jason Williams.
Mike Dunleavy scored 25 points for Indiana, which has lost 13 of its last 17 games. Andre Owens and Danny Granger each scored 13 and Kareem Rush scored 12 for the Pacers, who led by nine with 4:05 left in the third but couldn’t finish Miami off.
Oh, but the Pacers made it more than interesting down the stretch.
Miami was up 94-85 on Wade’s 3-pointer with 4:36 left, before Indiana went on a 9-2 run over the next 3 1/2 minutes, a burst capped by Rush’s 3-pointer with 1:07 remaining that drew the Pacers within 96-94.
The Heat lead was still two with 15.8 seconds left, after Haslem missed a jumper that could have made it a two-possession game. Rush missed an open 3, but Troy Murphy threw the ball off Haslem on the way out of bounds with 5.8 seconds left – giving Indiana another chance.
But Wade knocked the inbounds pass away, and the streak came to an emphatic end.
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