Heat Wins 12th Straight; James Six Wins from Jordan's Longest Streak

LeBron James led the Miami Heat to their 12^th straight win, pulling him within six wins of the longest streak Michael Jordan streak had during his year with the Bulls (see side-by-side comparison of each game below). James scored 40 points and had 16 assists, including several to Dwyane Wade who added 39 points as the Heat survived for a double overtime win over the Sacramento Kings 141-129.

The Heat would need to defeat the Memphis Grizzlies at home, then win at the Knicks and Timberwolves before coming home to win three more to tie the streak at 18 games. The 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers have the longest winning streak ever at 33 games.

While Wade and Scottie Pippen give James and Jordan two of the best No. 2 players ever, both players also have benefitted from a tattoo covered dominant rebounder who rarely scores. Jordan’s dominant rebounder was Dennis Rodman, who is in North Korea Tuesday, while the Heat’s Chris Anderson continued to add the inside muscle the Heat was missing as well as scoring 10 points of his own.

The struggling Kings franchise showed surprising spark in threatening to end the Heat’s winning streak. The inconsistent but physically dominant DeMarcus Cousins finished with 24 points and 15 rebounds and Marcus Thornton came off the bench for 36 points, the highest of a reserve this year.

Jordan shot 49.5% during the 1995-96 season to lead the Bulls to a 72-10 season.  This month, James shot 64.1% from the floor (139 for 217).

 

Dec 29 1995-Feb 2 1996		Bulls	Opp	Streak	Feb 3 2013-March 10 2013		Heat	Opp
Indiana Pacers	h	120	93	W 1	Toronto Raptors	a	100	85
Atlanta Hawks	h	95	93	W 2	Charlotte Bobcats	h	99	94
Houston Rockets	h	100	86	W 3	Houston Rockets	h	114	108
Charlotte Hornets	a	117	93	W 4	Los Angeles Clippers	h	111	89
Milwaukee Bucks	h	113	84	W 5	Los Angeles Lakers	h	107	97
Seattle SuperSonics	h	113	87	W 6	Portland Trail Blazers	h	117	104
Philadelphia 76ers	a	120	93	W 7	Oklahoma City Thunder	a	110	100
Washington Bullets	a	116	109	W 8	Atlanta Hawks	a	103	90
Philadelphia 76ers	h	116	104	W 9	Chicago Bulls	a	86	67
Toronto Raptors	a	92	89	W 10	Philadelphia 76ers	a	114	90
Detroit Pistons	a	111	96	W 11	Cleveland Cavaliers	h	109	105
New York Knicks	a	99	79	W 12	Sacramento Kings	h	141	129
Vancouver Grizzlies	h	104	84	W 13	Memphis Grizzlies	h
Miami Heat	h	102	80	W 14	New York Knicks	a
Phoenix Suns	h	93	82	W 15	Minnesota Timberwolves	a
Houston Rockets	a	98	87	W 16	Orlando Magic	h
Sacramento Kings	a	105	85	W 17	Philadelphia 76ers	h
Los Angeles Lakers	a	99	84	W 18	Indiana Pacers	h
Average Bulls Score		106	89		Average Heat Score		109	97