Basketball

Curry, Durant lead Warriors past Heat 107-95

Stephen Curry had 24 points, nine assists and eight rebounds, Kevin Durant added 28 points and the Golden State Warriors picked it up late to beat the Miami Heat 107-95 on Tuesday night in another victory while hardly at their best.

Durant also had eight rebounds and Draymond Green had 13 points, nine rebounds and five assists in the Warriors’ fifth straight win against the Heat and eighth in 10, including three in a row at home.

Klay Thompson had the night off for rest after he played through illness the past two games. Coach Steve Kerr said he was worn down.

Hassan Whiteside had 28 points and 20 rebounds for the Heat, who were outscored 26-14 in the third quarter after leading 54-53 at halftime.

Rookie Patrick McCaw made his first career start in Thompson’s place and contributed a key 3-pointer in the third that put the Warriors ahead 67-60.

While they finished with 28 assists, that zippy passing game the Warriors have with Thompson on the court wasn’t quite as crisp — though one pretty sequence of several quick touches led to Ian Clark’s key 3 on a pass from Andre Iguodala with 5:44 to go. Iguodala later dished to Clark again for a layup.

Curry hit just 4 of 11 3-pointers as the Warriors shot 11 for 27 from beyond the arc and 45.3 percent overall. The two-time reigning NBA MVP fell short of a fourth straight game with 30 or more points.

Golden State, which played its lone road game in 10 on Sunday with a bus trip to nearby Sacramento, again struggled to find an offensive flow while missing everything from layups to open 3s during stretches.

Miami lost its third straight game and dropped to 1-4 on this five-game road as coach Erik Spoelstra works to help his team find “our identity on both ends of the court and doing it more consistently.”

Whiteside’s alley-oop dunk with 7:15 remaining pulled the Heat within 85-80 and forced a Warriors timeout. Tyler Johnson scored to make it a three-point game before the Warriors closed it out in their typical, impressive fashion.

Luke Babbitt returned for Miami after sitting out against the Clippers on Sunday with an illness, but he was limited in 18 minutes.

Zaza Pachulia had scored in double figures in four straight games for the Warriors but had eight points, six rebounds and three assists.

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