Miami Heat tops visiting Philadelphia for 3rd straight win

The Miami Heat remained perfect this season without Dwyane Wade in the lineup, beating the 1^st place Philadelphia 76ers 113-92 on Saturday night. Miami has now beaten Philly 7 straight times at the AAA. The Heat are now 6-0 without D-Wade, who can just sit back and enjoy the show while healing up from various injuries. The other members of the Big 3 have been picking up the slack with Wade sidelined, and last night was no exception.

LeBron James continued his strong play of late, putting up 28 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals and 3 blocks. Even with the very strong all-around game, it was the first time that he failed to score at least 30 points with D-Wade out of the lineup. Still, James knows when to take a game over, and when to get his teammates involved, something he takes as much pride in as he does putting up points.

Also contributing in a big way was Chris Bosh. Unlike LeBron, Bosh was able to crack that 30-point plateau, adding 7 rebounds, 5 assists and a pair of blocked shots. He really came alive early in the 4^th quarter, scoring 8 of the Heat's first 11 points to give them a 19-point lead. Bosh also reached a significant career total, as with his 12^th point of the game he had totaled 12,000 points in his NBA career.

Joel Anthony had one of his most productive games of the season. He had season-high's in points, with 9, rebounds, also with 9, and shot attempts, also...yup, 9. More season bests came with his 3 blocked shots and his 3 made free throws. Anthony has now hit 3 field goals in three consecutive games, something he hadn't done before in his entire career.

GAME NOTES

• Miami has now won 8 straight games against the Sixers.
• Chris Bosh has now cracked the 30-point mark three times this season.
• The Heat are now 7-0 this season when Bosh scores at least 20 points.
• Miami won the rebounding battle 52-31, one of their widest margins of the year.
• Andre Iguodala was held to a season-low 4 points.
• Philly's D is one of the best in the league, giving up only 86.7 points per game, but they gave up 113 to the Heat.
• Another game, another double-digit rebounding game for Udonis Haslem. He now has 9 on the season.
• Mario Chalmers dished out 8 assists, tying his season-high.

The Heat will get right back to work tomorrow when they wrap up this back-to-back set with a game against the visiting Milwaukee Bucks. Tipoff from the AAA will be at 6pm.