WASHINGTON -- Kyrie Irving scored 11 of his 23 points in overtime, including a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 35 seconds left, and the Cleveland Cavaliers edged the Washington Wizards 140-135 in a playoff-type atmosphere Monday night.
The loud, sellout crowd was standing, and so were the players on both benches, when James somehow missed a gimme layup late in the fourth quarter. Moments later, he banked in a maximum-degree-of-difficulty, step-back 3 with 0.3 seconds left to send the game overtime, where he fouled out and Irving took over for Cleveland.
James finished 32 points and a career-high 17 assists. Kevin Love had 39 points and 12 rebounds for the Eastern Conference leaders, who ended surging Washington's winning streaks of 17 in a row at home and seven in a row overall.
Bradley Beal had 41 points and eight assists for the Wizards, but he missed a potential tying 3 with about 5 seconds left in overtime (see full recap).
Heat edge Timberwolves for 11th straight win
MINNEAPOLIS -- Goran Dragic scored 33 points and hit a career-high seven 3-pointers to lead the Miami Heat to their 11th straight victory, 115-113 over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night.
Hassan Whiteside had 19 points and 13 rebounds, and the Heat shot 53.6 percent (15 for 28) from 3-point range. Miami made 10 more 3s than Minnesota and held on late after a furious comeback attempt by the Wolves.
Philadelphia 76ers
Complete coverage of the Philadelphia 76ers and their rivals in the NBA from NBC Sports Philadelphia.
Karl-Anthony Towns had 35 points and eight rebounds for the Timberwolves, who have lost four straight games. Andrew Wiggins added 27 points, but missed two shots with chances to win the game in the final 8.5 seconds (see full recap).
DeRozan, Raptors overcome Griffin's triple-double
TORONTO -- DeMar DeRozan had 31 points and the Toronto Raptors overcame a triple-double from Blake Griffin to beat the Los Angeles Clippers 118-109 on Monday night.
Griffin, who had his fifth career triple-double and first of the season in three quarters, finished with 26 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists. It wasn't enough to prevent the Clippers from a third straight defeat against the Raptors and their seventh in eight games in Toronto.
DeRozan, who had missed seven of Toronto's last eight games with a sprained ankle, was 11 of 22 from the floor, while Kyle Lowry scored 24 points and Jonas Valanciunas had 21 points and 12 rebounds for his 20th double-double of the season. The Raptors were 3-4 in DeRozan's absence and won for just the fourth time in their last 12 games.
Austin Rivers had 22 points and Marreese Speights added 15 off the bench for the Clippers, who lost for the seventh time in their last nine games (see full recap).
