MIAMI (AP) – Dwyane Wade scored 21 of his 32 points in the first half, Goran Dragic added 20 and the Miami Heat handed LeBron James another loss on his former home floor with a 106-92 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday night.
Hassan Whiteside had 16 points and 11 rebounds and Mario Chalmers finished with 16 points off the bench for the Heat, who won both of James’ regular-season trips to Miami this season – his first two games back since leaving the team and returning to Cleveland last summer.
Miami closed the first half on a 19-5 run to take a 56-38 lead and pushed the margin to 25 in the third.
James scored 16 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter for Cleveland, which had its four-game winning streak snapped. Kyrie Irving added 21.
Miami moved into the No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference standings, tied record-wise with No. 7 Indiana and No. 9 Boston. Charlotte, another team in that mix at the bottom of the East bracket, was in a late game at Utah.