Dallas Too Easy for King James

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LeBron James and the Miami Heat came up against a Dallas team already missing Dirk Nowitzki and plagued by more injuries- with no semblance of their two NBA Finals matchups against each other.

James scored 24 points with some early baskets on nifty passes from Dwyane Wade, and the Heat rolled to a 110-95 victory Thursday night, a game in which Miami led by 36 points before James and Wade sat out the entire fourth quarter.

"I'm just playing within the game," said Wade, who had 19 points and six assists. "My job is to do a little bit of everything right now."

Including getting the ball to James, who has scored at least 20 points in all 23 games, the longest streak to start an NBA season since Karl Malone's 24 in a row opening the 1989-90 season.

"I'm just very comfortable and confident in my ability," James said. "I put a lot of work into my game. It's always good when you put in the work and implement that into a game situation."

Nowitzki, the Mavs' 11-time All-Star, hasn't played this season though he practised for the first time this week since arthroscopic right knee surgery October 19. Dallas is now without starting point guard Derek Fisher (right knee) and post players Elton Brand (right groin) and Brandan Wright (right ankle).

The Heat never trailed after James drove for a short floater 3 minutes into the game. They had their first double-digit lead, 22-11, when James made a 3-pointer with 4 1/2 minutes left in the first quarter.

"We don't want to give a team too much confidence at home. We understand this team was short-handed," Wade said. "We wanted to come out here on the road and make a statement."

Chris Bosh added 17 points as the Heat played only their second road game since Nov. 17. They return home to play Utah on Saturday before an NBA Finals rematch against Oklahoma City on Christmas Day.

Rookie Jae Crowder had 15 points to lead six Dallas players in double figures. Dahntay Jones and Bernard James had 12 points each.

LeBron James' first 3 came in between two impressive passes from Wade, who didn't yet have James or Dallas native Bosh as teammates when the Heat clinched their first NBA title in the same building in June 2006.

Dallas is much changed team since winning the 2011 NBA title over the Heat, in the star trio's first season together. Miami is now defending a championship this season.

"Much better team than we were. We know each other," James said. "We can close our eyes and where we're going to be offensively and defensively."

Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle wholeheartedly agrees with that assessment, and is dealing with the opposite side of that since Nowitzki and Shawn Marion are the only current Dallas players who actually played in the NBA Finals only two seasons ago.

"They're so much better now since they've been together and there's a lot to be said about being together," Carlisle said. "Right now one of our struggles, we have a group that hasn't been together too much. ... And it's been challenging."

Bosh rebounded a missed 3-pointer by the Mavericks and got the ball to Wade, who had a perfect alley-oop pass to James, who caught the ball in midair near the rim and slammed it through with both hands.

After another missed 3 by Dallas later in the first quarter, Wade grabbed the rebound under the basket and then threw a football-like pass the length of the court to James. Even with Darren Collison and Vince Carter fronting him, James leaped and reached over to grab the ball, then finished with a layup to make it 27-13.

Dallas pulled to 36-33 after Dominique Jones had consecutive assists to rookies, a 3-pointer by Crowder and a reverse layup by Bernard James.

But Miami then responded with a 16-4 run.

Miami stretched the lead to 91-55, its largest of the season, when Shane Battier made a 3-pointer with 1:21 left in the third quarter.

Nowtizki practised for the first time Wednesday, and had an individual workout Thursday. It's still unclear when he will make his season debut, but got a huge cheer when he was shown on the video screen during a timeout.

Collison, who lost the job as the starting point guard when the Mavericks signed Fisher on Nov. 29, was back in the starting lineup and had 11 points.

Fisher was hurt in the first quarter of a win over Philadelphia on Tuesday night. He will skip a two-game trip for games at Memphis on Friday night and San Antonio on Sunday. The team said there is no timetable for the 38-year-old Fisher's return and that he would be re-evaluated next week.

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Lakers Lose Second Opener

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The talent-laden Lakers have dropped two straight to open the season -- their opener at home against the Dallas Mavericks followed by a 116-106 thumping by the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night.

To make matters worse, two-time MVP Steve Nash, brought in by the Lakers in the offseason along with six-time All-Star Dwight Howard, was injured late in the first half against Portland.

"We've got to learn how to play together," said Howard, who had 33 points and 14 rebounds in the loss to Portland. "You've got to be good before you can be great."

The Lakers' stockpile of stars lacked a sense of urgency against the Blazers, who led by as many as 19 points. Nicolas Batum had 26 points and Damian Lillard, the sixth overall pick in the June draft, had 22 points and 11 assists in his NBA debut.

Kobe Bryant had 30 points and Howard's output Wednesday night was a vast improvement over his debut the night before against the Mavs, when he had 19 points and 10 rebounds but made just three of 14 free throws before fouling out. The Lakers lost that one 99-91.

But it was apparent for the second night in a row that the Lakers were still getting used to each other. The starters rarely played together during an 0-8 preseason.

"We didn't expect to just come together and be awesome," Howard said. "It's always a process. We've got to stick with it so that at the end of the year we can have a trophy."

Nash collided with Lillard and limped to the locker room. Although the team initially reported he was fine, Nash struggled when he returned for the second half and left the game for good a short time later.

The team said he had a bruised left leg. He said after the game he hopes to play Friday when the Lakers host the Clippers.

"We're not sharp," Nash said. "I think the guys are trying, we just didn't live up to what we're trying to do."

The Blazers, who finished 28-38 last season and out of the playoffs, opened their season with eight newcomers on the roster after an offseason rebuilding effort around All-StarLaMarcus Aldridge, Wesley Matthews and Batum.

"People probably didn't expect us to come out and beat that type of team, but we've been competing very hard in practice, and we did that same thing tonight," Lillard said. "We were flying around, lots of energy. I think our activity kind of wore on them."

Portland pulled out to a 30-26 lead late in the first quarter after Matthews' 3-pointer. Lillard extended the lead to 35-26 with a running bank shot in traffic.

J.J. Hickson's jumper made it 41-34 for Portland, but Bryant answered for the Lakers with a 3-pointer. Batum's fast-break jam gave the Blazers a 46-40 lead and Portland went into halftime with a 62-57 lead.

Portland took its momentum into the second half, going up 72-64 on another dunk by Batum. Sasha Pavlovic's 3-pointer gave the Blazers an 88-76 lead just before Howard was called for his fourth foul.

Matthews' jumper made it 102-83 in the fourth quarter. Batum had a 3-pointer to make it 108-94 as the game slipped out of reach for the Lakers.

Batum's opener comes after an uncertain offseason as a restricted free agent. The Blazers got into a poker match with the Timberwolves over the 23-year-old Frenchman, eventually matching Minnesota's four-year offer sheet worth more than $45 million.

Batum, like the rest of the Blazers, was trying to keep the victory low-key.

"This was just one game, just one game," he said. "It was a really good win, but we've got to focus on the next game on the road."

Portland visits Oklahoma City on Friday night.

The Blazers wore new red uniforms for the opener and encouraged fans to wear red, but the crowd was nonetheless sprinkled with plenty of Lakers gold. Among them was a fan that lifted a sign reading, "I love Steve Nash."

"The morale is fine, but nobody wants to lose," Lakers coach Mike Brown said. "We've just got to focus on what it will take for us to get a win. That's defense, first, and then, obviously, we've got to take care of the basketball."

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Dirk's Dallas Despatched by Thunder

Oklahoma City kept picking and rolling, and James Harden kept making plays.

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Instead of giving in and being content going home for a Game 5, the Thunder now are waiting for their next series. Oklahoma City rallied for a 103-97 victory on Saturday night to complete a first-round series sweep of the defending NBA champion Dallas Mavericks.

Harden scored 15 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter, including seven in a row and nine in the Thunder's 12-0 run after they trailed by 13 points with 9:44 left.

"I got into attack mode," Harden said. "I was determined to make plays."

After the Harden-fuelled surge over 3 minutes got the Thunder within a point, they finally took the lead -- and kept it -- when Russell Westbrook stole the ball from Dirk Nowitzki and passed to Serge Ibaka for a two-handed slam that made it 92-91 with 5:17 left.

"He beat us in individual drives, beat us in pick and rolls. He got up a head of steam and was great," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said of Harden. "We tried everything, five or six different coverages going. We needed to be better but it was more about how good he was."

Dallas is the second defending champion in five years to be swept in the first round. After beating the Mavericks in the 2006 NBA Finals, Miami lost in four games to Chicago the next year.

Kevin Durant had 24 points and 11 rebounds for the Thunder, who will play the winner of the series between the Los Angeles Laker sand Denver. The Lakers lead that first-round series 2-1 going into Game 4 on Sunday night in Denver.

"This goes without saying, I'm excited we won the series," coach Scott Brooks said. "James had an incredible game. We ran pick and rolls at the angles. ... He was making plays for himself or our shooters."

Even when Harden bobbled the ball in the fourth quarter after Oklahoma City took the lead,Derek Fisher ended up with it and drove for a layup to make it 96-91. Nowitzki then had a shot that hit the rim a couple of times before falling out.

Nowitzki had 34 points, including all six of his free throws after that. But he also missed a couple of shots in that span, all that were close but not good.

With their 20-something All-Star duo of Durant and Westbrook along with the late-season addition of Fisher, who won five NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers, the Thunder got the franchise's first four-game playoff sweep since 1996.

That's when they were still the Seattle SuperSonics and swept the Houston Rockets in a second-round series.

"If you want to be an elite team in this league, you got to have two or three guys who can go off at any time and I just thought they had more weapons than us," Nowitzki said.

Oklahoma City finished off the Mavs without starting centre Kendrick Perkins, who left the game with 4:09 left in the first quarter with a right hip strain. He had two rebounds, two assists and missed his only shot in his 8 minutes.

Jason Kidd, the Mavericks' 39-year-old point guard, had 16 points and eight assists. Jason Terry had 11 points in what might have also been his last game in Dallas.

Westbrook and Fisher had 12 points each for the Thunder.

Dallas led 86-73 on a 3-pointer by Terry before Harden scored seven in a row -- on a three-point play and two other baskets. Durant then made a 3-pointer, and after Nowitzki was short on a 14-footer, Harden drove for a powerful two-handed slam that got the Thunder within 86-85.

The game was tied at halftime before Nowitzki had 12 points and Kidd made three 3-pointers in the third quarter, when the Mavs scored 34 points to take an 81-68 lead.

Dallas had never been swept in a best-of-seven series. And the Mavericks hadn't lost four playoff games in a row since the 2006 NBA Finals against the Heat, when they took a 2-0 series lead before losing the rest.

Now they are the oldest team in the NBA, and vastly changed from last year's championship squad.

Still, the Mavs looked like they were ready after halftime to at least force the series back to Oklahoma City, where they opened the series with two losses by a combined four points before losing by 16 at home in Game 3 on Thursday night.

Nowitzki drove around Ibaka for a tiebreaking one-handed reverse layup less than a minute into the second half, and the lead was up to 64-54 when Shawn Marion had a slam dunk.

The closest the Thunder got the rest of the third quarter was six points, but Kidd stretched that back out with another 3-pointer.

Carlisle had talked during the off day about the Mavericks controlling their emotions after his outburst in the first quarter of Game 3. He had to be held back by an assistant coach when he charged onto the court and was pointing and screaming at an official because of what he said were three missed calls on one possession, ending with Oklahoma City scoring on what appeared to be basket interference.

Before the end of the first quarter Saturday night, Carlisle was mad again -- and for good reason.

Kidd had bad pass that went out of bounds, but officials missed that the ball was deflected in the air by Harden. Replays showed clearly that Carlisle had a gripe and that the loud boos were warranted.

Fisher then made it worse by hitting a 22-foot jumper when play resumed. But Vince Carter made a 3-pointer to get the Mavs within 26-24 before drawing a charge from Harden near midcourt.

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West Fined for Jazz Wet Willie

The NBA fined Mavericks shooting guard Delonte West US$25,000 ($24,100) for giving Jazz guard Gordon Hayward a 'wet willie'.

After being called for a foul on his Utah opponent late in the first half of a game in Salt Lake City earlier in the week, West nonchalantly approached Hayward and poked his index finger in his right ear.

The act was missed by referees but West was handed a technical foul after officials reviewed the incident.

No stranger to controversy, West played down the incident after Dallas' 123-121 loss in triple overtime.

"I was giving him a wet willy, that's all," West told reporters. "He had some lint in his hair."

The 28-year-old - who grinned when asked if his jab on Hayward should be renamed a 'West willie' - said he was not worried about getting reprimanded by league commissioner David Stern's office.

Asked if he anticipated a fine, he said, "If they do, they do. If they don't, they don't."

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