Geoff JohnsonBoth the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat had impressive wins on Friday night, although in a decidedly different way. Lakers and Heat will square off on Sunday at 3 PM ET at American Airlines Arena.
The Heat improved to 21-3 at home with a solid 111-89 victory over the Clippers; the game was essentially over after two quarters. Lebron James hit 9-for-11, and now has managed to convert 37 of his last 47 attempts, and sat out the fourth quarter.
“He’s off the planet right now,” Dwayne Wade said of James. “He’s not even the best basketball player on the planet. He’s surpassed the planet. He’s somewhere else. He’s playing phenomenal.”
“Just confident in my ability,” James said. “It was great to see, when you put in a lot of work, and you implement it into a game situation. Just play your game. That’s what I’m doing right now. Just playing my game.”
The Lakers had to comeback from 20 down to beat the Bobcats late in the matchup.
“We have to play the right way,” Kobe Bryant said. “When we have shots available, we take them. If we don’t, move the ball on. It can’t be about individual touches. It can’t be about that.”
“In the second half, I got in position where I could catch it and turn and shoot it a little bit,” Bryant said. “They were reluctant to double team because we started knocking down some shots. I think that makes the game a lot easier.”
The Lakers need to play a lot better if they want to challenge the red-hot Miami Heat.
