James’ jam lights fire under streaking Heat

ORLANDO, Fla. — Late in the third quarter, the game was tied and the Miami Heat winning streak seemed in jeopardy.

Then LeBron James got mad.

And then the Orlando Magic had no chance.

James finished with 24 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds, throwing down a dunk to start a huge, swift run that carried the Heat to their 27th straight victory, 108-94 on Monday night.

“We are not taking this team for granted,” James said. “I continue to always say that in professional sports, wins are hard to come by and teams like this are really rare. To be part of a team like this, we do not take it for granted.”

That dunk — which came one possession after James badly missed a layup and got frustrated — started what became a 20-2 run over a 4½-minute portion of the third and fourth quarters, and it put the Heat in control for good.

James finished one rebound shy of a triple-double, feigning disappointment. That’s about all the Heat could complain about afterward.

Mario Chalmers scored 17 points, and Chris Bosh and Ray Allen each added 12 for Miami, giving Heat coach Erik Spoelstra his 250th win and bringing the reigning NBA champions within six games of matching the Lakers for the longest winning streak in league history, a 33-game run.

“We did enough late in the third quarter and in the fourth quarter to come away with this win,” Spoelstra said. “That was some of our best in that fourth quarter on both ends of the court. ... Before that, it was a little bit of a sleepwalk.”

Jameer Nelson had 27 points and 12 assists for the Magic, who got 20 points from Tobias Harris. Magic coach Jacque Vaughn didn’t seem to think Miami’s winning streak will end anytime soon.

“I’m far from the expert on that. ... That’s a very good ballclub led by a very good player,” Vaughn said. “It’s impressive what they’re doing.”

The four-game road trip for Miami continues at Chicago on Wednesday, followed by a Friday matchup at New Orleans — which snapped Denver’s 15-game winning streak on Monday. Miami’s trip ends Sunday in San Antonio.

It’s now the second-longest winning streak in American major sports, behind only the Lakers’ run. Baseball’s New York Giants won 26 straight games in 1916, the New England Patriots won 21 consecutive NFL games in 2003 and 2004, and the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins won 17 consecutive times in 1993.

“When they got rolling, we had to try to stop them,” Orlando’s Kyle O’Quinn said. “But they got rolling too quick.”

Both teams were missing key components, Dwyane Wade for Miami and Nik Vucevic for Orlando.

Wade missed his second straight game with a sore right knee, one that he said had been bothering him periodically since March 9 and then flared up after a collision against Boston last week. He had an MRI exam over the weekend to rule out any major problems and plans to play Wednesday.

Vucevic sat his third straight game while dealing with a mild concussion.

A 9-2 run early in the third gave Miami what was then its biggest lead, 64-53. Instead of deflating the Magic, they answered with their best stretch of the game, capped by a 3-pointer by Nelson with 3 minutes left that tied the game at 68-all.

And when James missed a layup at the other end, then got called for a foul after the rebound, Orlando might have been thinking that the streak could soon be snapped.

Nope.

Miami needed only two minutes to close the quarter with 10 unanswered points, with James doing either the orchestrating or performing. He got loose on a curl for a dunk to start the run, and the Heat took off.