• Miami Heat 94, Los Angeles Lakers 88

LeBron James is the better overall player, but Dwyane Wade is comfortably the better halfcourt scorer and unlike their series of losses, his usage was high and he was able to create shots at the bucket off the Lakers’ defense. With the game extremely close for Miami in the final minutes yet again, Wade simply outplayed Kobe Bryant on both ends of the floor.

In the end, a five-game losing and eight-game winning streak both came to abrupt ends and Kobe Bryant was still shooting jumpers in an empty American Airlines Arena after midnight.

Wade and James combined for just 46% of Miami’s overall scoring, as Chris Bosh had a game-high 24 and Mike Miller contributed 12 and seven off the bench. The Heat experienced a turnover plagued third quarter and it was impossible for me to see how they wouldn't lose another close one to a so-called quality opponent.

But they remained calmer than in other losses and that poise was palpable in their play.

The real stories down the stretch were Miami’s ability to get far easier looks than they had been seeing during their slide, and the shot selection of Bryant down the stretch. Bryant’s 4-for-8 from three-point doesn’t look too bad the next day in the box score, but he forced two particularly egregious three-point attempts in the final moments. As I Tweeted immediately after the game, Bryant delivered a Doppelganger performance that was similar to what Miami had been doing in their big fourth quarter shots during the losing streak.

The Heat finished the game +16 on points in the paint and 21 second chance points.

The win for Miami means more for them than the loss does for the Lakers, but it clearly sends two constructive messages to both sides.

For the Heat, there was never reason to panic about the sky falling. They will win their first round series and then anything is capable of happening in that second round when the Eastern Conference gets excruciatingly difficult.

For the Lakers, they have finally been on the right track but there is still a lot of basketball remaining before the playoffs even begin. There was an overlying sense they were peaking coming out of the break, particularly given the play of Andrew Bynum. They aren’t quite all the way there because Thursday’s loss really should have been a win, and let’s leave some bullets in the chamber.

• Dallas Mavericks 127, New York Knicks 109

With the Knicks on their way to allowing nearly 1.4 points per possession to Dallas, the far more entertaining brand of the NBA was occurring on Twitter as we followed the postgame shooting session of Kobe.

As for the game.. the Knicks couldn’t stop anybody and appeared visibly fatigued; Dirk Nowitzki, Shawn Marion and Jason Terry had 23, 22 and 21 points apiece; Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony combined for an inefficient 17-for-42 from the floor.

Rick Carlisle called out his team after their loss to New Orleans and their 72-51 first half effort told the story of how much they thought about that.

New York made is a little bit interesting late in the game, but it wasn't something anyone was really believing.

• Denver Nuggets 116, Phoenix Suns 97

This was about as thorough of a road dismantling as you will witness involving two teams of similar records.

Denver’s entire identity since the trade (6-2 now by the way) has been to run opposing teams out of the building and it worked to maximum effect. The Nuggets outscored Phoenix 33-10 on fastbreak points and scored 66 points in the paint. This is the formula the Suns once used, but it felt a little more controlled and organized even as it was happening than what Denver does.

Ty Lawson and Nene were great and Denver made 31 of their 46 field goals at the rim, with seven of those other 15 coming from distance. That type of production at the bucket doesn’t happen often and certainly happens by design.