Heat 105, Jazz 89
LeBron James scored 30 points, Dwyane Wade added 21 points and seven assists, and host Miami rode the strength of a big third-quarter run to beat Utah on Saturday night.
James added nine rebounds and seven assists for the Eastern Conference-leading Heat, who won their fourth straight game and next play on Christmas against Oklahoma City in a rematch of last season’s NBA Finals. Shane Battier scored 15 and Ray Allen added 13 for Miami, which opened the second half on a 22-6 run to build a 69-49 lead.
Marvin Williams scored 16 for Utah, which got 15 from Gordon Hayward and 11 from Paul Millsap.
Hawks 92, Bulls 75
Al Horford had 20 points and 10 rebounds, and every Atlanta starter scored in double figures to rout visiting Chicago and snap a two-game skid.
Lou Williams added 16 points in his first start, and the Atlanta native led the way as the Hawks (16-9) outscored the Bulls 61-33 in the second and third quarters combined. Both teams played on Friday, but the Bulls were the only one that looked tired a night later.
Luol Deng paced Chicago (15-11).
Atlanta starters outscored Chicago’s starters 72-39 in Hawks coach Larry Drew’s 100th victory (100-73).
Nuggets 110, Bobcats 88
Kosta Koufos scored a season-high 16 points, and Kenneth Faried and Andre Iguodala added 15 points apiece as host Denver beat Charlotte and sent the Bobcats to their 15th consecutive loss.
JaVale McGee added 14 points, and Danilo Gallinari had 12 for Denver, which won its sixth in a row at home.
Charlotte, playing the second of a back-to-back set on the road, was without injured guards Gerald Henderson and Ben Gordon.
Ramon Sessions had 23 points to lead Charlotte. Byron Mullens added 16.
Pistons 96, Wizards 87
Charlie Villanueva scored 19 points, Rodney Stuckey added 18 and visiting Detroit got its second win in as many nights over Washington.
The Wizards, who trailed throughout the game, have lost seven straight and dropped to an NBA-worst 3-22.
For the second straight night, Detroit had 58 rebounds.
The Wizards closed to 88-81 with 6:15 to play, but didn’t score for nearly four minutes as Detroit built a 94-81 lead with 2:55 to play.
Jordan Crawford, who scored his only point of the first half with 1:05 to play, scored 20 in the second half to lead Washington with 21.
Rockets 121, Grizzlies 96
James Harden scored 31 points with eight assists, and Houston routed visiting Memphis for its third straight win.
Harden did all his scoring in the first three quarters and reached at least 20 points for an eighth straight game.
Mike Conley had 16 points for the Grizzlies on a night when leading scorer Rudy Gay finished with six points.
Pacers 81, Hornets 75
David West scored 20 of his 25 points in the second half and Indiana overcame a 22-point deficit to beat host New Orleans, handing the Hornets their 11th straight loss.
Paul George steadied Indiana in the first half with 11 points, and finished with 17 to help the Pacers win for the seventh time in eight games.
The Hornets’ Robin Lopez had 24 points and 11 rebounds.
