NBA Scores & More: Jeremy Lin, Knicks Beat Mavs, Thunder Puts Together Stunning Box Score

The Miami Heat ‘did their thing' in dropping the Orlando Magic 90-78 Sunday night. Dwyane Wade and LeBron James took turns being hot and getting Miami out quick to start both halves, and the Heat used their top five defense to put the clamps on Orlando, holding the Magic to 36 percent shooting to win the game.

The Heat were particulaly effective on the Magic pick and roll, a Hedo Turkoglu specialty. Orlando ran 18 plays labled pick and roll by MySynergySports.com and shot 0-of-12 with three turnovers on those plays. Turkoglu was impacted by this in having a terrible game in his 24+ minutes on the floor: 0-of-4 from the field, no rebounds, three assists, three turnovers and a single point.

Wade took the first shift in scoring for the Heat's star trio, knocking down six of eight shots in a 22-11 start for a 12 point quarter. The Magic clawed back to end the quarter and cut the Heat lead to three, led by J.J. Redick's three-pointer, part of an 11-point opening quarter for himself and an efficient 17 points for the game.

Redick started for Orlando after usual starter Jason Richardson was scratched due to what was termed chest pains before the game. Richardson was advised against playing by the Heat's medical staff, according to reports.

After Wade returned in the second quarter, the Heat went on a 17-2 run to grab the lead for good. Wade scored seven points during his second quarter shift and James pitched in with five as the Heat took a 12-point lead into halftime.

The second half was LeBron's turn, bolting the Heat out of the gates with a 10-point quarter of his own as Miami shot better than 50 percent for the quarter. The Magic made a semi-run a towards the end of the third to cut the Heat lead to nine, but in the last minutes Udonis Haslem grabbed an offensive rebound from a missed Shane Battier three-pointer, sent it back to Battier, who rattled home another three attempt. Then James closed out the quarter by driving and feeding Haslem for an open baseline jump shot with less than two seconds left to give the Heat a 16-point lead at the end of three.

Wade finished the game with 27 points on 13-of-23 shooting, and James missed a triple-double by two assists, finishing with a 25-11-8 line with only two turnovers. The Heat didn't even need the third member of their heralded trio, Chris Bosh, to turn in any more than the eight-point, nine-rebound effort he provided.

One wonders how the Magic, given their struggles in beating Miami on the pick and roll, didn't get All-Star center Dwight Howard more involved in the post, as the big man only recorded six post plays in the game, according to MySynergySports.com, and had 10 attempts overall. Howard ended up with 12 points and 15 rebounds and missed on eight of his 10 free throw attempts.

For more on the Heat, check into Peninsula Is Mightier -- for the Magic, it's Orlando Pinstriped Post.

The Los Angeles Lakers are a different team on the road than they are at home. That much has been apparent all season, but never in sharper relief than in the brief 48 hours from Friday night until Sunday night. The Lakers easily handled the Suns in L.A. on Friday, never trailing in the second half and leading by as many as 20 in their 111-99 victory. A couple days later in Phoenix, it was a different story, as the Lakers only lead was at 2-0 in the first minute of the game, and the Suns maintained a double-digit edge from late in the first quarter until the final buzzer, winning 102-90.

There has always been a distinct home court advantage in the NBA: the rigors of travel work against the visitors, while the home crowd energizes the hosts. However, the effect has seemed to be more distinct in this compressed post-lockout season, which might stand to reason with fewer days off compounding the impact of the travel. And no team has been more schizophrenic from home to road than the Lakers, traditionally one of the best road teams in the league (they were one game away from the best road record in the league last season). After Sunday's loss in Phoenix, the Lakers are now 5-11 on the road. Compared to their outstanding 13-2 home record, it is the largest home-to-road drop off in the league -- a winning percentage of 87 percent at home, compared to 31 percent away. It's somewhat baffling -- the Lakers are an established team, led by veterans Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol. One usually associates road struggles with inexperienced teams that might get rattled in an unfamiliar, hostile environment. It's the last thing you'd expect from the mighty Lakers.

On Sunday the Suns jumped on them early. A 20-4 Phoenix run midway through the first quarter broke open what had been a close game, at least for a few minutes. The Suns led by 16 after the first quarter, 23 at the half, and established their biggest lead at 27 early in the third quarter. The Lakers began to chip away at the lead in the latter half of the third and into the fourth, but could get no closer than 10.

The Lakers' biggest problem on Sunday was turnovers, and the biggest offender was Bryant, who registered an unwelcome double-double of 32 points and 10 turnovers. It was the most turnovers by a single player in a game this season and only the second time Kobe's had as many as 10 in 1,342 career regular season and playoff games. Pau Gasol (17) and Andrew Bynum (16) provided additional scoring, but as has been the case all season, the supporting cast was not very supportive. No other Laker scored in double figures, and only one had more than five points. Starters Metta World Peace and Derek Fisher combined for two points between them.

Phoenix was led by Jared Dudley with 25 points and Marcin Gortat with 21 and 15 rebounds. As you might expect, Steve Nash was orchestrating the whole thing, piling up 14 assists in the game to add to his league-leading total. The Lakers had no answer for the Nash-Gortat pick and roll. Nash remains the master of that simplest of plays, exhibiting extraordinary patience to allow the advantage to develop and unfailingly delivering the perfect pass when it does.

With the win the Suns improve to 13-19 overall. The loss drops the Lakers to 18-13.

For more on the Suns, stare into the Bright Side of the Sun. To read up on the Lakers, gaze at the Silver Screen and Roll.

Kevin Durant scored a career high 51 points and Russell Westbrook added 40 more as the Oklahoma City Thunder's dynamic duo outscored seven other NBA teams in action on Sunday night, but they needed plenty of help to knock off the visiting Denver Nuggets 124-118 in overtime. James Harden rolled his ankle in the second quarter and failed to find range all night, but Serge Ibaka answered the bell with an eye popping triple-double including 14 points, 15 rebounds and 11 blocks. Nineteen teams other than the Thunder played on Sunday night, and none of them recorded more blocks that Ibaka did on his own. The performances by Durant, Westbrook and Ibaka marked the first time in NBA history that a team featured two players with 40+ scoring nights and another teammate with a triple-double. All of this concentrated dominance makes it even more amazing that Denver actually played from the front up to the end of regulation.

The Thunder thrived on the strength of their terrific trio, while the Nuggets -- without Rudy Fernandez (lower back strain), Danilo Gallinari (ankle) and Nene (calf) -- shared the load in every respect. Seven players scored in double figures for Denver, headlined by Arron Afflalo's season-high 27 points and Andre Miller's 21-point, 10-assist double-double. Al Harrington snared a team-high 11 rebounds in Nene's absence, but seven players grabbed at least four boards. Meanwhile, backup bigs Chris Anderson and Kousta Koufos picked up the slack on the scoring front by aggregating 24 points on 11-13 from the field.

The Nuggets managed to stay out in front for most of regulation largely because they never stopped long enough to consider the gravity of the situation. George Karl opted to forcefully dictate the pace of the game by encouraging Ty Lawson and company to attack in the open floor and work quickly half court sets. Denver entered the game as the fastest team in the NBA with the fourth most efficient offense, but their approach on Sunday night bordered on a serial obsession with speed. The action almost moved too rapidly to appreciate Kenneth Faried's early highlight block and Russell Westbrook's poster-worthy response. Whether the Thunder made shots, missed them or turned the ball over, Nuggets players always responded quickly. The behavior almost felt context-neutral. Everything had to happen fast; that felt like the penultimate goal.

For the most part, Denver's run-and-gun style did the job, too. They jumped out to 14-point lead in the second quarter on 52.1 percent shooting and 17 first half assists on 25 made shots, but when things got sloppy in transition OKC put together a 20-0 run fragmented by the halftime break that landed them within striking distance for the finish. Ty Lawson and Andre Miller masterfully operated the up-tempo attack for the majority of the night, and the Nuggets ended up with 72 points in the paint to show for it, but at times the fast break devolved into a mess of turnovers and off-balance shots from sub-optimal spots. In one blink the Nuggets surged to a 46-32 lead with 6:29 in the second quarter, but in the next blink they slipped behind 63-58 with 8:28 left in the third.

Denver operated in deadly fits and starts, but OKC sparkled when Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka shared the floor. Those three combined to score 55 of the Thunder's 58 second half points on 24-32 shooting, as everything they touched turned to gold on offense. Miller and the Nuggets opened the fourth quarter on a 10-1 run and pushed the Thunder to the brink -- OKC only led for 19 seconds in the fourth. Durant, Westbrook and Ibaka scored their team's final 27 points in regulation to get the contest to overtime. Durant's 51 points on 78.7 percent True Shooting marks one of the most spectacular individual offensive performances of the year, but the game still proved too close to call in regulation.

The final minutes of the fourth quarter and the entirety of the overtime period demonstrated the stark differences between the star-laden Thunder and the undermanned Nuggets. In the final four minutes of regulation, Scott Brooks allowed Westbrook and Durant to work out of isolation sets and either create for each other or get a shot on the rim for Ibaka to clean up. The simple formula allowed OKC to get back in the game, and Durant sent it to extra time with a well-paced driving dunk off an in-bounds play originally designed for a three-point look.

Meanwhile, Denver squandered their late lead by playing to their fear of Ibaka on defense. They ran some pick-and-roll with Chris Andersen in an attempt to draw Ibaka away from the basket, but that led to Birdman taking a few long jumpers and scoring five of their last 10 points in regulation. Birdman score the bulk of crunch time points is never a good thing. The late-game offense highlighted the painful lack of a go-to player for Denver. With a chance to seal the game with under 10 seconds remaining, Ty Lawson tried to run pick-and-roll with Al Harrington, but when Westbrook moved under the screen, Lawson forced himself into an ill-fated long three that clanged off the side rim and allowed Durant to tie the game with his dunk. Then on the final possession Lawson tried an isolation at the top of the key but ended up with an off-balance up-and-under from the free throw line that caught the right side of the cylinder.

Durant and Westbrook capitalized on the OT opportunity by scoring all 13 Thunder points, putting pressure on the Nuggets to execute in the half court. Oklahoma City successfully ran the rudimentary "our guys are better than your guys, so try and stop it" offense to perfection (because their guys are indeed better), but Denver could not match them on their own terms. With five crippling turnovers and numerous isolation shots taken under duress in OT, the Andre Miller as emergency creator plan fell flat on its face for George Karl. Ibaka closed every angle to the hoop and the Nuggets simply had no answer when Thunder took running off the table.

The Thunder are now 12-1 at home and have won nine consecutive games at Chesapeake Energy Arena. They own the Western Conference's best record at 24-7. The injury-depleted Nuggets have now lost 8 of their last 10 games and have fallen to 17-15 overall.

Serge Ibaka's points-rebounds-blocks triple-double is the first in franchise history -- Oklahoma City and Seattle included -- to involve blocks, and here is a look at how Ibaka secured his place in history:

For fan analysis, news and info on these two teams, visit Thunder blog Welcome To Loud City and Nuggets blog Denver Stiffs.

The Dallas Mavericks entered Madison Square Garden posing the biggest threat the Jeremy Lin-led Knicks have faced yet. With one of the league's best defenses and six straight wins in their wake, the Mavs seemed like more than the short-handed Knicks -- whose own win streak had just ended with a rotten loss to New Orleans -- could handle for four quarters. New York responded with a blazing start and a defiant finish, the combination of which proved enough for a momentous 104-97 win in front of a rambunctious Garden crowd.

The game began with Lin and his Knicks badly out-gunning the Mavs. Lin repeatedly worked his way to buckets despite the spindly interference of Shawn Marion and a rotating cast of help defenders. When the Mavs collapsed into the paint, Lin kicked to J.R. Smith, the Knick so new to the club that Mike D'Antoni claimed he let the Knicks more or less improvise while Smith was on the floor (D'Antoni's hardly ever serious but never quite kidding). Smith, probably still jet-lagged from his extended stay in China, wasn't even expected to spin much, but ended up entering in the mid-first quarter and logging a solid 29 minutes off the bench. He came out firing, too, turning Lin's dimes into three-cent pieces from outside. Smith drained three threes in the early going and boosted the Knicks to a 12-point first quarter lead.

When Lin took a seat to open the second, Dallas generated some momentum and sustained it through halftime. They cut their deficit to three going into the break, then pushed the pace to find Dirk Nowitzki easy, punishing looks to race ahead in the third. Nowitzki, barely even noticing the defense of a mismatched Iman Shumpert, dominated well into third and pulled Dallas ahead by 12 and to the verge of breaking the game open.

New York responded, though, and finished much the way they'd started. The Knicks snuck a 7-0 run into the final minute of the third quarter, then turned the longball over to Steve "Novakaine" Novak, who just couldn't feel his face. The Wisconsin-raised gunner got so rowdy from outside -- four threes in the first five minutes of the final quarter -- that he felt compelled to invoke the gesture of a hometown celebrity. And New York followed through on Novak's quarter-opening salvo. Lin hit a couple threes of his own, and Tyson Chandler anchored several crucial defensive plays to sustain the lead through the final buzzer.

The final tally for the stars: 28 points, 14 assists, five steals and seven turnovers for Lin; 34 points and five rebounds for Nowitzki. Both, conveniently enough, shot 11-20 from the field.

New York's eighth win in nine games moved them back to .500, while Dallas's first loss in a week and a half dropped them to a 20-12 record.