Heat beat Knicks to take three-game lead

LeBron James woke from a third-quarter slumber to lead the visiting Miami Heat to an 87-70 thumping of the New York Knicks and a commanding 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven play-off series.Miami dealt the Knicks a record-setting 13th successive play-off defeat dating back to April 2001 and put themselves on the brink of reaching the second round. No NBA team has ever recovered from a 3-0 deficit in the play-offs.In the West, the Oklahoma City Thunder left the defending champion Mavericks also on the verge of being swept after crushing them 95-79 in Dallas to win the first three games of their series.Kevin Durant led the way with 31 points on 11-from-15 shooting for the Thunder whose lead was cut to 50-45 early in the third quarter before they broke the game wide open with a torrent of three-pointers.Russell Westbrook finished with 20 points and Serge Ibaka with 10 points and 11 rebounds as Oklahoma City shot 42 percent from the field while holding their opponents to 34 percent.Game Four will take place in Dallas today in New York; James sat out the last seven-and-a-half minutes of the third quarter after picking up his fourth personal foul in a ferocious defensive struggle at Madison Square Garden that Miami led 58-56 going into the final quarter.Two three-pointers and a follow-up from under the basket, all from James, powered the Heat to a 10-point lead after 89 seconds of the fourth quarter, which they stretched to 15 to put the game out of reach.“I just wanted to make plays and help our team win,” James said of his explosive return to the court.James led the Heat with 32 points, including 17 in the final stanza, and Dwyane Wade added 20, with 10 in the third quarter to carry Miami in James’s absence.New father Chris Bosh, who left New York to be with his wife Adrienne in Miami for the birth of their child and returned just before the game, contributed nine points and 10 rebounds.Before his fourth-quarter burst, James had a frustrating game, committing eight turnovers in an ugly offensive showing from both clubs as players had a hard time dealing with the clawing defense played.Struggling even more was New York’s premier scorer, Carmelo Anthony, who shot a woeful seven-of-23 from the floor to lead the losers with 22 points.The Knicks shot a miserable 31.9 per cent from the floor, and James said the Heat’s game ball went to forward Shane Battier for the job he did covering Anthony.“Shane was our player of the game,” James said about Battier, who did not score a point in more than 35 minutes of play. “He did a great job on Melo.”The undermanned Knicks, playing without Amar’e Stoudemire who badly cut his left hand after hitting a fire extinguisher case in anger after New York’s Game Two loss, must now sweep four games to advance against last year’s NBA Finals runner-up.Game Four will be played at the Garden on Sunday.

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Heat beat Knicks to take three-game lead