NBA

Miami Heat beat Rockets 109-89, Bulls beat Magic 92-87 and Toronto boosted their record to 3-0

Rockets are first team in NBA history to lose first 3 games by 20 points each. Bulls and Raptors reached the third victory of the season.

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Miami Heat 109-89 Houston Rockets

Miami was down 65-44 early in the second half. The Heat outscored Houston 65-24 the rest of the way. The Rockets have dropped each of their first three games by exactly 20 points each.

Haslem, who didn’t play a single second for the Miami on Sunday night, held a speech at the break. His fiery speech – replete with some profanity from the tri-captain and a couple bottles getting angrily spiked into the red locker room carpeting for emphasis – led to a Miami turnaround, the Heat outscoring Houston by 41 points in the final 23 minutes and rolling past the Houston Rockets 109-89.

“Absolutely awesome. That’s what leaders do. By the time I got in there, he was already halfway through it and there wasn’t much that was needed to be said after that,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said about the speech.

“At times, I can be kind of harsh. But it’s harsh reality … and it just comes out the way it comes out,” Haslem said.

Hassan Whiteside had 25 points and 15 rebounds, Wade scored 20 points and Luol Deng scored 14 for Miami. Tyler Johnson scored 11, Chris Bosh had all 10 of his in the fourth and Justise Winslow added 10 for the Miami Heat.

Marcus Thornton scored 21 points for Houston, and James Harden had 16 on 2 for 15 shooting – 0 for 10 from 3-point range. So far this season, Harden has made just 12 of 54 field goal attempts (22.2 percent) and is 3-of-32 from 3-point range (9.3 percent).

“I’m just shooting my shots that I normally shoot,” Harden said. “I’m not really trying to think about it too much. As good of a shooter as I am, I’m still going to have struggles throughout the season. This is the first couple games, so it’s tough. But just stay with it.”

The last time the Rockets were 0-3 was in the 2010-11 season. They started 6-0, 12-3 and 19-5 last season.

Chicago Bulls 92-87 Orlando Magic

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With his vision still blurred from a broken orbital bone suffered before the season, Derrick Rose is finding other ways to contribute to the Bulls, like his game-high eight assists Sunday that helped the Bulls hold off a late surge by the Orlando Magic in a 92-87 victory. It was the third win in four games for Chicago. The Magic dropped to 0-3.

“There is no point in shooting the ball if I can’t see,” Rose said.

Rose averaged 17.7 points per game last season for the Chicago Bulls but scored just six against Magic after scoring eight against Detroit.

Pau Gasol and Niko Mirotic each scoring 16 points with Jimmy Butler adding 14 to lead the Bulls. Doug McDermott came off the bench to score 12.

Evan Fournier led the Magic with 19 points. Nikola Vucevic added 15 and a game-high 11 rebounds, and Tobias Harris had 11 points. The Magic blocked 11 shots, led by Vucevic and Victor Oladipo with three each. The Magic are averaging nine blocks a game.

Toronto Raptors 106-87 Milwaukee Bucks

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The Bucks, the second-youngest team in the league this season with an average age of 23.7, lost to the Knicks and Wizards to start the season. It’s the first time Milwaukee has lost three in a row to open the campaign since dropping its first five games in 1976-77. It’s Toronto’s first 3-0 run out of the blocks since 2008-09, and just the third time in team history that it has been perfect through the season’s opening three games,

Backed by 15 points from DeMar DeRozan, Casey got his franchise-record 157th win as coach of the Raptors. Casey paid special tribute to DeRozan, who has been with Casey since he inherited a last-place Atlantic Division team, and Casey has improved the club’s record in each of the four seasons since. Toronto has won back-to-back division titles the past two years. Casey took the milestone from current Minnesota Timberwolves coach Sam Mitchell. Casey broke the record in just his 315th game in charge.

Jonas Valanciunas chad a team-high 19 points to go with eight rebounds. Kyle Lowry finished with 15 points and seven assists.

Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 20 points and 9 rebounds. Greg Monroe added 14, and Carter-Williams had 12 points and 7 assists.

Greivis Vasquez, who was traded to Milwaukee in the off-season, finished with 9 points. He was greeted with cheers when he came into the game midway through the first quarter.