LOS ANGELES, Calif. — LeBron James scored a season-high 39 points to help the Miami Heat survive a late rally from the Lakers and post a 99-90 win Thursday. Just hours after being pipped by the Lakers' Kobe Bryant as the leading vote getter for the 2013 All Star game, James outplayed his rival comprehensively, adding eight assists and seven rebounds to his points haul. “It was very important for us,” James told reporters. “We want to continue to get better and we wanted to finish this road trip on the right foot. We played good tonight and it's a good win.” The Heat won three and lost three of a six-game road trip that ended Thursday. “Turnovers killed us,” Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni admitted. “It's disappointing. I thought we played well enough to beat them. Obviously you have got to marvel at what LeBron did but at the same time we had 16 turnovers in the first half and that led to a lot of points.” Bryant was kept quiet in the opening three quarters, making just three of 16 from the floor, allowing Miami to build an eight point lead. But Bryant came alive in the fourth to help tie the score at 90-90 inside the final three minutes, only for the NBA champions to pull away again, thanks to some clutch Ray Allen buckets. Miami moved to 26-12 with the win, while the Lakers dropped to 17-22 on the season. Miami's Dwyane Wade added 27 points on his 31st birthday while Bryant had a team-high 22 for LA. Knicks 102, Pistons 87: Carmelo Anthony returned to the site of his Olympic triumph and scored 26 points to lead New York over Detroit in London. Anthony scored 18 in the first half as the Knicks (25-13) jumped out to a 16-2 lead before holding a double-digit lead for most of the game. Amare Stoudemire added 17 points for the Knicks and J.R. Smith scored 16. Will Bynum led the Pistons with 22 points. The Pistons (14-25) were the home team at the O2 Arena in London, the site of the Olympic gold-medal game during last year's London Games. It was the third regular-season NBA game played at the venue, where the then-New Jersey Nets swept the Toronto Raptors in a pair of games two years ago. Tyson Chandler scored 10 points on Thursday and pulled down 14 rebounds. Clippers 90, Timberwolves 77: Jamal Crawford scored 22 points, Blake Griffin added 20 and Los Angeles hardly broke a sweat in cruising past free-falling Minnesota. Lamar Odom grabbed 12 rebounds and dished out six assists, and the Clippers outscored Minnesota's bench 45-23 to overcome Chris Paul's third straight missed game because of a knee injury. Luke Ridnour scored 21 points and Ricky Rubio had four points and six assists in his first start of the season for the Timberwolves, who lost leading scorer and rebounder Nikola Pekovic to a bruised right quadriceps in the third quarter. The Timberwolves shot just 35.7 per cent and missed 15 of their 19 3-pointers in losing their fifth straight game. Bucks 98, Suns 94: Mike Dunleavy hit a 3-pointer with 57.4 seconds left to cap a 10-0 run and Milwaukee pulled away to snap a 24-game losing streak in Phoenix. Monta Ellis scored 24 points and Larry Sanders added 19, while Dunleavy and Brandon Jennings had 16 apiece for the Bucks, who had not won in the Valley since Feb. 21, 1987, at the old Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Milwaukee has won four of six since interim coach Jim Boylan replaced Scott Skiles on Jan. 8. Shannon Brown scored 20 points off the bench for the Suns, who have lost four straight at home for the first time since 2004 and have dropped 13 of 15 overall. — Agencies
