MIAMI – Klay Thompson scored 28 points, Jonathan Kuminga added 18 and the Golden State Warriors pulled away in the second half to beat the still-shorthanded Miami Heat 113-92 on Tuesday night.
Stephen Curry and Andrew Wiggins each scored 17 for Golden State, which led by two at the half and then led by as many as 22 points in the fourth.
Recommended Videos
Bam Adebayo scored 24 points for Miami, which played without leading scorer Jimmy Butler — sidelined by an illness. The Heat also were without Tyler Herro (foot) for a 16th consecutive game, Kevin Love (heel) for a 14th consecutive game and Duncan Robinson (back) for a fourth game in a row.
Haywood Highsmith and Terry Rozier each scored 15 points for the Heat. Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored 12 and Nikola Jovic had 11. Miami fell to 2-16 when it scores less than 103 points.
Thompson was 11 for 20 from the floor, 6 for 14 on 3-pointers and had his highest-scoring game since Feb. 15 for the Warriors.
Chris Paul had two steals for the Warriors, giving him 2,600 in his career. He’s the third player to reach the 2,600-steal milestone in NBA history, joining John Stockton (3,265) and Jason Kidd (2,684).
The Warriors (37-34) moved a full game ahead of idle Houston in the race for 10th — and the final play-in spot — in the Western Conference. Miami (39-33) remained seventh in the Eastern Conference, tied with Philadelphia but one spot over the 76ers because of a head-to-head tiebreaker.
The loss also left Miami 1 1/2 games behind Indiana in the race for the sixth, and last guaranteed playoff spot, in the East.
Miami fell to 13-9 in games without Butler this season; the Heat are 26-24 when the six-time All-Star is in the lineup.
Miami was within 87-81 early in the fourth; Golden State outscored the Heat 26-11 the rest of the way.
UP NEXT
Warriors: Visit Orlando on Wednesday.
Heat: Host Portland on Friday.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA