Miami Heat End Season 66-16 After Win Over Magic
MIAMI (AP) — Dwyane Wade successfully lobbied to play in Miami's regular-season finale, saying he wanted to get a little more work in before the playoffs begin this weekend.
He looked more than ready for another postseason run.
Wade scored 21 points and handed out 10 assists, Mike Miller added 21 points and theMiami Heat wrapped up the regular season with a 105-93 win over the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night.
Orlando finished with the NBA's worst record, 20-62.
Miami (66-16) became the 14th team in NBA history to finish with a winning percentage over .800. The Heat have home-court advantage throughout the NBA playoffs and will open their quest for a second straight championship this weekend against the Milwaukee Bucks in an Eastern Conference first-round series.
"Awesome," Wade said. "It's great. It's a testament to the team being committed and being very consistent all year."
The Heat were without LeBron James, who was away from the team for the day while tending to a personal matter and almost certainly would not have played even if he was in the arena anyway. Chris Bosh was in the first starting lineup the Heat submitted Wednesday, before the team changed course about 45 minutes before game time and decided to give him the night off as well.
"We still have time to get into this mentally," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
Juwan Howard scored 12 points in the 900th start of his career, while Rashard Lewis scored 16 points and Ray Allen scored 10 for Miami.
The Heat finished 37-4 at home, and not long after putting together a 27-game winning streak — the second-longest run in NBA history — the defending champs head into the postseason having won a league-best eight in a row.
"Now we start the real thing," Wade said.
Nik Vucevic had 20 points and 13 rebounds for Orlando. Only once have the Magic won fewer games in a season — their inaugural year, going 18-64 in 1989-90.
The Heat surely won't mind not seeing Vucevic again until next fall. In three games againstMiami this season, Vucevic — who arrived in Orlando as part of the Dwight Howard trade last summer — finished with 65 points and 63 rebounds, getting double-doubles in every outing.
"It's not a fluke," Magic coach Jacque Vaughn said. "He's done it on a consistent basis for us. And he's improved ... he's gotten better along the way."
Tobias Harris scored 19, Beno Udrih scored 12, Andrew Nicholson scored 12, E'Twaun Moore had 11 and Maurice Harkless finished with 10 for the Magic.
Wade has been sidelined for much of the past couple weeks while recovering from bone bruises around his right kneecap. He announced about an hour before the game that he would play, citing a need to improve his conditioning before Game 1 of the postseason.
Without James and Bosh in the lineup, he was the clear go-to guy, and responded with 17 first-half points — his most since late February.
Orlando, which has known for some time that its season was ending with the final whistle of this game, hardly seemed like a team eager to start its summer vacations. The Magic shot 57 percent in the first half, outplayed Miami for some stretches and went into intermission down just 55-47.
"I've asked a lot of these guys," Vaughn said.
The Magic cut the lead to one point on a pair of occasions in the third, before the Heatclosed the quarter on a 16-7 run. And that burst came after Wade checked out for the last time in his 10th regular season.
Wade's final shot was a reverse layup, and he appeared to be limping slightly afterward. TheHeat took no more chances, getting Wade out of the game at the next stoppage and having trainer Jay Sabol strap icepacks to each of his knees.
Wade seemed fine, talking and laughing on the Heat bench not long afterward. And when the last horn went off, the playoffs — and a chance for another title — had finally arrived inMiami.
"This year went by so fast. ... I think it'll just keep getting better and better," Wade said.
"Regular-season games are there for a reason, and that's to improve and get better and we think we accomplished that," Spoelstra said. "It will be different. We'll never be the underdog. And that's the way it should be. Our guys accept that responsibility and they know we'll have to prove it every single night."
A year ago, the big question entering the playoffs was whether Miami was good enough to win it all. This season, it seems like the rest of the league is waiting to see who might give the Heat a challenge.
"I'll be tuned in," Vaughn said. "I'll watch."
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