Final Score: Miami 125, Houston 119
Miami, FL (Sports Network) - LeBron James finished with a game-high 33 points to go along with 10 rebounds and seven assists as the Heat topped the Rockets, 125-119, at American Airlines Arena.
Chris Bosh posted 31 points and 12 rebounds while Dwayne Wade scored 30 with 11 rebounds and five assists for Miami, which won its fifth straight and eighth in nine games.
Miami is now even with the Boston Celtics for the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, with the Celtics currently in progress at Minnesota.
Kevin Martin paced Houston with 29 points. Luis Scola added 28 points before fouling out and Kyle Lowry scored 25 with nine assists in the loss that snapped a five-game winning streak.
"It's a tough loss," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "(The Heat) played their tails off. If there was anything that hurt us, it was their penetration and their rebounding."
The game entered the final stanza tied at 93. After trading baskets for most of the quarter Miami expanded their lead to a game-high 116-106 on James' jumper with 3:35 remaining.
However, after consecutive Scola baskets it was down to 116-110, and after a Wade bank-shot, Chase Budinger canned a three-pointer and Lowry connected on an acrobatic tip-in with 51 seconds remaining to make it a one-possession game, 118-115.
Wade sank a driving layup with 33.8 seconds remaining to give Miami a 120-115 advantage, and after Bosh made 1-of-2 from the line it was back up to six.
After Scola made a driving layup with 18.8 ticks remaining, James and Bosh both iced pairs from the line to widened the Heat's advantage to 125-117 with Martin's layup accounting for the final margin.
Both teams shot over 60 percent from the field in the first as the Heat took a 38-37 lead into the second. The second quarter remained a back-and-forth scoring effort, and after ending the quarter on a 7-0 run, the Heat held a 71-68 lead at the break.
Martin paced the Rockets with 11 points in the third quarter as Houston tied the game at 93 entering the fourth.
Game Notes
The Rockets began a three-game road trip that will include visits to New Jersey and Philadelphia...The Heat held a 48-33 rebounding advantage...Mike Bibby scored 14 points, including 4-of-5 from three-point range, for the Heat...Budinger finished with 16 points for Houston.